Ankara, Turkey — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Ankara known for?

Ankara Province is known as the capital region of Turkey, the seat of national government on the Central Anatolian plateau. It holds the country's core. Around the ancient citadel of Ankara, the province gathers the ministries and institutions of the state, set high in the interior of Anatolia away from the coasts and the older weight of Istanbul.

Where is Ankara?

Ankara Province lies at the heart of Turkey, spread across the high plateau of Central Anatolia. The land runs high and open. Rolling steppe and dry uplands fill the province, far inland from the seas that ring the country, the ground rising to the tableland that gives central Anatolia its bare, wide character.

The interior sets the scene. At the centre of it all stands the city of Ankara, built around an ancient citadel on a rise above the plateau. The province gathers around that core.

From the capital the tableland of Central Anatolia reaches outward on every side, a landlocked expanse at the middle of Anatolia, well away from Istanbul and the distant coasts of Turkey. This is high interior country.

What is Ankara like?

Ankara Province carries the culture of a national capital rather than a coastal resort. Turkish is its language. As the seat of government at the centre of Turkey, the province wears a formal, official character, its life bound up with the ministries and universities that gather around the ancient citadel of Ankara on the Central Anatolian plateau.

Beneath the modern capital lies far older ground. The citadel tells that story. Central Anatolia has been settled and crossed for millennia, and the province holds that long interior heritage beneath its government offices, a meeting of the ancient and the administrative at the middle of Anatolia, away from the coasts and from Istanbul.

The plateau keeps its own character.

What is the history of Ankara?

Ankara Province takes its modern weight from the city at its centre, chosen as the capital of Turkey and the seat of national government. The capital moved inland. An ancient citadel had crowned the site long before, marking ground settled since antiquity on the Central Anatolian plateau, and around that old core the modern city of Ankara grew into the administrative heart of the country.

The past reaches far back on this plateau.

What is the climate of Ankara?

Ankara Province has a dry continental climate, set high on the Central Anatolian plateau. The Anatolian winter turns severe. Long cold spells and heavy frost grip the interior once the season turns, while summers run hot and parched under a wide inland sky, the plateau at the middle of Turkey swinging sharply between the two.

Rain stays scarce.

How do you get to Ankara?

Ankara Province is reached above all through the capital city of Ankara at its centre. Roads and rail converge there. From the heart of Central Anatolia, the intercity lines and highways of Turkey fan out toward Istanbul and the coasts, while the capital's airport carries the province's air traffic across the interior.

Most journeys start in the city.