The earliest known civilization in Asia Minor (Turkey) was founded by the Hittites.
They inhabited the land of Hatti on the central plateau of what is now Anatolia, Turkey, and some areas of northern Syria. The Hittites, whose origin is unknown, spoke an Indo-European language. They invaded the region, which became known as Hatti, about 1900 BC and imposed their language, culture, and rule on the earlier inhabitants, a people speaking a non-Indo-European agglutinative language.
The first town settled by the Hittites was Nesa, near present-day Kayseri, Turkey. Shortly after 1800 BC they conquered the town of Hattusa, near the site of present-day Bogazköy.
Nothing more is known of Hittite history until, in the 17th century BC, the so-called Old Hittite Kingdom was founded by the Hittite leader Labarna (reigned about 1680-1650 BC), or Tabarna, and Hattusa became its capital.
Labarna conquered nearly all of central Anatolia and extended his rule to the sea.
His successors extended Hittite conquests into northern Syria. Mursili I (reigned about 1620-1590 BC), the second ruler after Labarna, conquered what is now Halab (Aleppo), Syria, and raided Babylon about 1595 BC.
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