Turkey 🇹🇷 ~Ankara “Ankara Castle”
Today, we made it as far as Ankara, the modern capital of Turkey. It is the second largest city of Turkey, and our halfway point between Istanbul and Cappadocia.
History Lessson: Constantinople was the Ottoman capital until 1923. The capital was then moved to Ankara and Constantinople city was renamed; Istanbul.
In 1923, after the Turkish War of Independence, Ankara was chosen as the new Turkish Capital.
Ankara is where we have stopped for the night. We had a very fun day, exploring this very interesting place. Ankara is a huge city, but compared to Istambul, it is still dwarfed by comparison. We stayed to the old part of town, and away from the modern city as much as possible. We are very glad we came for a visit, but as far as big cities go, we love Istanbul; old and new, but then again, not much can compare to Istanbul, in our opinion.
Dating back to the Roman, Seljuk and Ottoman Empires, Ankara Castle is one of the Turkish capital’s oldest sights and a beautiful destination.
Ankara Castle stands out as an important symbol of Turkey’s capital city. Its surrounding neighborhoods still have an old city charm that compliments the ancient city walls, which once offered defense and protection.
According to information collected by Anadolu Agency (AA), the Castle was built approximately between 476 BC and 33 BC and underwent changes in almost every period; yet, it consists of the inner castle covering the highest section of the hill and the surrounding outer castle.
It has a strategic position looking over all parts of Ankara and has been used as an army base, an ammunition store and a surveillance center for defense over the years, by states that have ruled the city throughout history.
There are many “Ankara houses” built in different periods inside the castle.
The classic two- or three-story Ankara houses in the neighborhood of Kaleiçi built with wood, adobe and bricks make the most of the narrow spaces in the castle’s steep areas.
Since the land is rough, the lower floor plans were not smooth, but the upper floors were properly planned with bay windows. The lower floors were built with thick walls and small windows for winter, and the upper floors have thin walls and are airy for the hot summer months. The wide eaves and summer rooms called “cihannüma” are among the defining features of Ankara houses.
After wandering around ancient Ankara, we looked for a place to eat. We found the best little place, within old town and the food was excellent! Filled up and satisfied, the next thing was to find a hotel. We found a few inside the Castle walls, but they were closed. We do not know why, but there is some construction going on around the old structures of the Castle, as the continue to refurbish old structures, so this may be the reason. It would be very noisy for a stay.
We drove out of the old town, but not too far, and we found nice place for our budget amount of 30 euros. It’s called the Akar International Hotel.
Tomorrow we still get to take our time, as we roll along. We don’t really have a plan, but we are halfway to Cappadocia. We will spend the night one more night; someplace, before hitting our first destination. I planned this, intentionally, as we want to arrive during the weekday, to avoid crowds, if we can. Cappadocia is a very popular place to visit.
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Hello and Welcome to our Travel Blog Website, We enjoy writing about our experiences and taking photos of our adventuring along the way. Our names are: Daryl and Pen, but Daryl calls me “Bunny.” We met, quite randomly, whilst both… Read More