Ankara

The modern face of the city shows itself in the broad avenues of the post-1923 planned New Town and in other more recent city-center developments. Here are found the wide boulevards, the pedestrian precincts, the streets of western-style shops and boutiques, the luxury hotels and top-class restaurants which are the hall-mark of a confident, forward-looking metropolis.

The population of greater Ankara continues to grow and as of 2007, exceeds 5 million. The urban sprawl extends from Yenikent, near Sincan in the Mürted Ovasi, eastwards for more than 50km/31mi to the Bayindir dam, and from Baglum in the north, southwards for 35km/22mi to Gölbasi, a popular destination for day-trippers, on the Mugan Gölü.

It is often said that Ankara is not worth visiting. This is far from true. On the contrary, the old quarter around the citadel offers the discerning traveler an insight into a three thousand year-old cultural history which is still in some respects alive today.

Transport

When Ankara became the capital of Turkey transport links were almost non-existent - it was the terminus of the Anatolian railroad, a branch of the Baghdad line. Expansion of the rail network, giving access to the Soviet Union, Syria and Iran, followed the opening up of the country by long-distance roads. Now flights between the capital and all the main provincial towns have been augmented by recently instituted air services to international airports around the world. Thus Ankara today is the hub of nearly all Turkey's major transport and communications links and, as the geographical, political, economic and intellectual center of the Republic, has largely emerged from the shadow of "the secret capital" - Istanbul.

History

Neolithic finds from the area around Ankara testify to early settlement by Hittite farmers in about 2500 B.C. The first town of any importance known to have existed here was in the Phrygian period (about 1200 B.C.). The name Ankyra, first recorded as belonging to an Achaemenid staging post on the imperial route from Susa to Sardes, may also date from this time. Phrygia's decline saw Ankara become part of the Lydian Empire before the Lydians, led by, among others, Croesus (560-46), were themselves defeated in the wars against the Persians (559-29 B.C.). Subsequently the town passed, as did Anatolia as a whole, to the Achaemids.

After 227 B.C. the Tectosages, a Galatian tribe who had migrated across the Dardanelles, made Ankara their capital, calling it Galatia. Victory over the Galatians in 189 B.C. then brought the city, the region and the whole kingdom of Galatia, under Roman rule. After periods in the possession of the Pergamum Empire and the Pontic King Mithridites the Great (until 74 B.C.) Roman rule resumed, and under Augustus (Greek: Sebastos) the town, now with some 200,000 inhabitants and known as Sebaste Tectosagum, became the capital of the Roman province of Galatia. A later emperor, Caracalla (211-17) rebuilt the walls of the citadel and constructed a large public baths.

With the arrival of Christianity Ankara became the seat of a metropolitan. It was the venue of several Councils of the Church, including those of 314 and 358, and when the empire split into East and West in 395 it was absorbed by Byzantium. Then followed centuries in which Islamic occupation alternated with Christian reconquest until the final triumph of the Ottomans in 1403. Situated as it was on the great Anatolian caravan route, the city, now known as "Engüriye" (Angora to Europeans), enjoyed almost undisturbed peace and prosperity under Ottoman rule.

Following the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the Grand National Assembly, convened under the