Earth Views

• turkey = .tr, Türkei, Turquía, Turquie, Turquia, Turchia

The Turkish spelling is 'Alaca Höyük'.
The bicephalous (two-headed) eagle was the main heraldic symbol of the Hittites.   A quick Google search of the internet will lead you to numerous web sites that cite as a fact that the Hittites were the first to use this symbol, and that other uses of the two-headed eagle (e.g. Byzantium, Russia, Germany and Albania) derive either directly or indirectly from the Hittite version.   One even claims that the Roman (single-headed) eagle was based on it.   I'm not qualified to comment on the truth of any of this, but it is all fascinating.

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This bridge, at Köprükoy or Çobandede, was built in the 12th century A.D..
Take note of the shape of the buttresses on the legs of the bridge.   They are basically the same shape as the Pharos (the lighthouse) of Alexandria.   Imagine taking two of these buttresses and standing them back-to-back away from the bridge.   What you end up with is a tower that has a square cross section near the bottom, an octangular cross section half way up and a circular cross section near the top — just like the Pharos.   I've seen this shape used in a few contexts in Turkey, all dated later than the Pharos.   I don't know whether the Pharos is the original usage of this shape or whether the source is older than that.