03Cities and regions

The capital

Ankara

Ankara is Türkiye's second city after Istanbul, with about 5.9 million people, set on the Anatolian plateau at 938 metres, and it has been the capital since 1923. Known in the past as Ancyra and later Angora, it gave its name to Angora wool, the Angora goat and the Angora cat. The citadel crowns its old hill: the Phrygians built the first fortifications there in the eighth century BC, the Galatians rebuilt them in 278 BC, and Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans all repaired them later. At the foot of the citadel, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations fills the Mahmut Pasha covered bazaar and the Kurşunlu Han, tracing Anatolia's story from the Palaeolithic to the Ottomans by way of Hittites, Phrygians, Urartians and Romans. In 1997 it was named the first European Museum of the Year. The city also keeps the Temple of Augustus and Rome, whose marble walls carry a Latin inscription recording the emperor's deeds. Spend a day on the citadel and the museum, stroll the old lanes around the hill, and look out from the walls over the city spreading across the plateau.

About 5.9 million

City population

0 m

Elevation

1997

European Museum of the Year