Mariegordus

Mariegordus is an ancient settlement site located north of the village of Karalar, within the Kahramankazan district on the northern outskirts of Ankara province. The remains at the site date mainly to the Roman period and include the foundations of a temple along with a number of burial mounds, or tumuli, scattered across the surrounding countryside. Traces of a fortification associated with the settlement can also be seen on a rocky outcrop nearby, suggesting the site combined a religious or civic center with some defensive function. Like much of the Ankara region, once part of the Roman province of Galatia, Mariegordus has received comparatively little large-scale excavation next to better-known sites such as ancient Ancyra, and it remains a lesser-visited corner of the area's layered Phrygian, Galatian, Roman and Byzantine past. The site is known today chiefly through regional archaeological surveys rather than through standing monuments open for general tourism.