Turkey’s capital Ankara is the second largest city in the country after the former capital Istanbul. It has a population of 3.9 million and lies at the heart of the country in Central Anatolia. This bustling student town and administrative centre has a cosmopolitan air to it, but its not the sun, sand and sea scene most dream of when thinking about Turkey, Ankara’s high altitude location at 850 m above sea level means that it can get cold here. It is also a city of stray cats, but not the usual ragged and forlorn moggies of other cities; Ankara is home to the world famous Turkish Angora, a small to medium long-haired, long-bodied feline with a refined bone structure. Besides their good looks and agile poise, Turkish Angora cats are renowned for their incredible intelligence and can open doors and play games of catch.Getting There
Ankara is easily reached by plane with new Ankara Esenboa International Airport (ESB) serving the city some 28 km away. Some international airlines fly here including Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and British Airways as well as the flag carrier Turkish Airlines. EasyJet now also offers low cost flights from Istanbul and Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg during the summer and you can connect with flights to the UK using this service. The city is linked by buses operated by Havas.The train service links the city with Istanbul and the eastern part of Turkey. The journey takes about 6-7 hours although this will decrease when the new faster trains are introduced. If you want to reach Ankara from destinations other than Istanbul, the bus service offers a faster alternative, but be prepared to have your hands squirted with lemon cologne by the driver! Within the city itself there are plenty of taxis and a two-line underground train as well as a reliable public bus network.A Dip Back in Time
Ankara’s exciting history dates back to the Bronze Age Hatti tribe and many ancient artefacts have been found in the city dating back to this time. The Hatti were succeeded by the Hittites who named the city Ankuwash. In the 10th century BC the Phrygians inhabited the area and expanded the city to cope with the mass of refugees from the Phrygian capital Gordion, where there had been an enormous earthquake. The Phrygian King Midas claimed that he founded the city, but history proves that it was much older. Later the Lydians inhabited the area and then the Persians who ruled until their defeat in 333 BC at the hands of Alexander the Great, the King of Macedonia. After Alexander’s death in 323 BC Ankara was given to one of the King’s generals called Antigonus. When the ancient Greeks took over the city expanded further and became a key trading centre for goods shipped between the Black Sea ports and Crimea in the north, Assyria, Cyprus, and Lebanon in the south and Georgia, Armenia and Persia in the east. The city became known as Ankyra, which meant anchor in Greek. In 25 BC the city was captured by the Roman Emperor Augustus and was included in the Roman Empire. It became the capital of the Roman province of Galatia and was an important commercial and administrative centre.
Ancyra quickly became a Christian city, where monks and priests dominated life here. By the late 4th century it was an imperial holiday resort. During the 6th century though it fell into the hands of several Arab armies and finally in 1071 it fell to the Seljuks. The Seljuk Sultan Alparslan annexed the city to his territory in 1073 and renamed it Angora, after the renowned wool of the same name produced by Ankara’s long-haired goats and rabbits. This name remained up until 1930.
In 1403 the Ottoman Turks captured and ruled the city until; their defeat during the First World War. Ankara was then occupied by the Allies who planned to divide the land up leaving the Turks a small piece of land in central Asia Minor. The Turkish resistance made Ankara their headquarters in 1920 and after they won the War of Independence Turkish nationalists replaced the Ottoman Empire with the Republic of Turkey in 1923 and declared Ankara the new capital.
Entertainment
As the country’s capital, Ankara offers much in the way of entertainment. There are a wide selection of concert venues, cinemas, folk festivals, bars, nightclubs and restaurants. For shopaholics there are some fantastic up market shopping malls like Armada on the Eskisehir Road. The area around Ankara's Castle also has some wonderful small family run stores selling carpets, leather and antiques. On the route down from the castle there is an excellent covered market akin to Les Halles in Paris.
The restaurants in the city come in all shapes and sizes and if you decide to eat here try the doner kebab – it’s the city’s signature dish. The city also has some excellent fish restaurants, particularly around Sakarya Street, where you can choose from fast food fish dishes to chic restaurants selling high quality fish, beware though fish dishes are not cheap, but if you wash it down with plenty of raki – the Turks say this drink is the perfect companion to fish the hefty bill won’t seem so bad! It is worth indulging in traditional Turkish cuisine and there are plenty of local restaurants selling Urfa and many vegetarian dishes.
There are stacks of bars where you can enjoy a cold beer and chill out; Papsi on Tunali Street is a good choice as are Kitir and Random near Kugulu Park. Don’t forget Corvus is on Bestekar Street if you like to listen to rock music or Locus Solus on Kennedy Street, where they play electronic, reggae and retro music as well as serving great food.
In terms of places to stay the city offers everything from the luxurious Sheraton Hotel in the Kavaklydere district to small amiable guest houses run by locals. At the top of the range there is plenty of choice with the Hilton, Swissotel, Ramada and Radisson but if you want to escape the pomp of these luxury chains try the Angora House, which is a boutique hotel in the Citadel zone. There are plenty of low cost hotels along Sanayi Caddesi, where you can negotiate your rate – usually in the region of 40-80 YTL for a double room per night.
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