Ancient city, capital of Phrygia .
Located in what is now northwestern Turkey, its ruins have yielded important information about ancient Phrygian culture. Excavations revealed Early Bronze Age and Hittite settlements, but the city achieved its greatest prominence as the flourishing capital of Phrygia in the 9th–8th centuries BC. According to legend, it was founded by the peasant Gordius, who later became king of Phrygia and contrived the the ingenious Gordian knot. Gordium remained the political centre of Phrygia until the Cimmerians overran it in the early 7th century BC. Though rebuilt under the Persians, it never regained its former splendour.