Ankara

The hill in the middle of Ankara has been settled since the Bronze Age, when Hittite traders knew the site, and the Phrygians held it after them. Celtic Galatians made it their capital as Ancyra in the third century BC, and under Rome it became the chief city of the province of Galatia, prosperous enough to build a temple to Augustus, a theatre and the bath complex whose foundations are still exposed. The wall of that temple carries the fullest surviving copy of the emperor's political testament, one of the most important Latin inscriptions anywhere.

Byzantine rulers fortified the citadel against Arab raids, reusing Roman masonry; Seljuk and then Ottoman rule followed, and in 1402 Timur defeated the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I on the plain outside the city. Ottoman Ankara grew rich on the soft, silky wool of the Angora goat, exported to Europe as mohair, and on the caravan trade across the plateau, before both declined in the 19th century.

Mustafa Kemal made the town the base of the national movement after the First World War; the Grand National Assembly first met here on 23 April 1920, and on 13 October 1923 Ankara was declared capital of the republic. A population of some tens of thousands grew into a planned modern city, laid out from the 1930s on plans by the German architect Hermann Jansen, with ministries, embassies and broad avenues running south from the old centre. Growth then outran every plan, and the city spread across the surrounding ridges.

Ankara's character comes from the state and the universities rather than from commerce. Ministries, the armed forces, the diplomatic corps and a dozen universities, among them Middle East Technical University, Hacettepe, Bilkent and Ankara University, set the tone: it is a city of civil servants, students and academics, more reserved and less showy than Istanbul, and proud of being the republic's own creation.

That republican identity is visible everywhere — in the early modernist architecture of Ulus and Kızılay, in the portraits of Atatürk, and in the two national holidays, 30 August and 29 October, when the city fills with flags and crowds. Anıtkabir receives millions of visitors a year and functions as a civic shrine rather than simply a monument.

The capital supports the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, whose ancestry goes back to the Ottoman palace band, the state opera and ballet, state theatres and a spring music festival, as well as a long tradition of political cabaret and satire. Bookshops and small cafés around Yüksel Caddesi have been a centre of student and left-wing culture for decades. Football loyalties are divided among several city clubs, none of them dominant nationally, so support is local and sometimes rueful. Migration from every province has made Ankara a city of transplants where regional associations, hometown restaurants and family networks matter.

About 5.8 million people live in Ankara province, almost all of them in the continuous built-up area, making it Turkey's second-largest city. Most live in apartment blocks, many of them in the high-rise estates that have spread north and west along the metro lines into Yenimahalle, Etimesgut and Keçiören, while older money stays on the southern ridges in Çankaya. Gecekondu districts, the self-built housing of earlier migration waves, have largely been replaced by tower blocks under urban renewal schemes.

The economy runs on government employment, universities and hospitals, defence and aerospace industries, and services; the Organised Industrial Zones on the edges of the city make machinery, food products and electronics. Salaries are steady but inflation has been the dominant household concern in recent years.

The day starts early, with long commutes on crowded metro lines and buses, and lunch is often taken standing or in a workplace canteen. Evenings bring tea gardens, shopping malls, which serve as all-weather public space, and walks along Tunalı Hilmi. Weekends mean breakfast salons, picnics in Atatürk Forest Farm or the parks, and trips out to the lakes and to Beypazarı. Persistent issues include traffic, winter air pollution trapped by the surrounding hills, and water supply on a dry plateau.

Ankara's own dishes are plain plateau cooking. Ankara tava is lamb or mutton baked with rice and vegetables in a wide tray; the city's version of döner is sliced from a spit and served on rice or in bread; and beans with tomato and pepper, kuru fasulye, eaten with rice and pickles, are the classic cheap lunch, particularly associated with the small restaurants around Kızılay and Ulus. Çorba, soup, is breakfast as often as it is supper, with mercimek çorbası, a red-lentil soup, the standard.

The plateau's staples fill the markets: bulgur, chickpeas, honey, walnuts and pekmez, a thick grape molasses. Beypazarı, north-west of the city, supplies carrots, its own sparkling mineral water and a many-layered baklava-like pastry, all sold in Ankara. Pastırma and sucuk from Kayseri, mantı and gözleme are everywhere, and the simit sellers' carts are a fixture of every avenue.

Breakfast is a serious meal, spread over a table of cheeses, olives, eggs, honey, clotted kaymak and endless tea, and weekend brunch in Bahçelievler or Kavaklıdere can last hours. Meyhanes serve rakı with meze, and Ankara's own beer is brewed at the Atatürk Forest Farm. Coffee is drunk Turkish-style, short and thick, though the student districts are full of espresso bars.