Battle of Myriokephalon

On 17 September 1176, the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos was defeated by the Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan II at Myriokephalon, a mountain pass in western Anatolia. Manuel was one of the most ambitious emperors of the Komnenian dynasty, and he had assembled a large army to capture the Seljuk capital, Konya, and drive the Turks out of central Anatolia. His army, along with a long baggage train carrying siege equipment, entered a narrow pass, where the Turks had prepared an ambush on the heights. As the column stretched out through the pass, it was attacked from both sides. The baggage train and the siege engines blocked the way, and the Byzantines suffered heavy losses, including Manuel's brother-in-law. Despite the defeat, much of the army survived, and Manuel was able to negotiate a peace that required him to destroy some frontier forts. Manuel himself compared the defeat to Manzikert. Although the losses were smaller, the battle ended Byzantine hopes of retaking central Anatolia, which remained under Turkish rule permanently.