"Ankara - Turkey's Capital City" a Ankara Travel Page by mikelisaanna

Ankara is a modern city of over 3 million people that became Turkey's capital city after the Greek-Turkish war in the 1920s (Istanbul had previously been the capital for hundreds of years). Before becoming the capital city, Anakara was a relatively small regional city that in ancient times had been known as Angora. Ankara's historic core features a hilltop citadel complex and some Greek and Roman ruins. However, the vast majority of the city was built during the past 80 years, and sprawls for miles up and over the city's hilly terrain.

When we were in Ankara we got the impression that it doesn't get as many tourists as other cities and regions of Turkey. However, there are still some good sights to see in the city. The two most significant are the Ataturk Mausoleum (where Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey is buried) and the Museum of Anatolian Civilization, which is a small museum with an outstanding collection of artifacts from 7000 BC to the Byzantine and Ottoman eras. In the Ataturk Mausoleum complex, the is also a very good museum about Ataturk and the formative years of the modern Turkish Republic (World War I through Ataturk's death). There are also a number of smaller museums in Ankara that looked interesting. Unfortunately, we were there only for a short time, and ran out time to see more sights.