Interesting Facts About Ankara

These facts uncover interesting side about Ankara which you might not know. Many people think that Istanbul is the capital city whereas this beautiful city is, in reality, the actual hub of all political activities. Here are some interesting things that you can do in the second largest city in Turkey.

• Ankara is the capital city of the country since the independence declaration in 1923.
• The total land area of Ankara is 971 square miles (2,516 square kilometers) which is roughly 4 times the size of Greater Manchester with a population of 4,750,000 people approximately
• Make sure you visit the Ethnography Museum of Ankara if you’re in Ankara; it’s a museum dedicated to the study of people and culture which was opened in 1928.
• Not only is the museum full of incredible artifacts, but the architecture is also stunning. Amazingly, Ankara has apparently been continuously inhabited since the Bronze Age!

• The Ankara region is also home to one of the ancient, natural cat breeds called 'Turkish Angora', which have been documented as early as the 1600s. It was also on the back side of Turkish 50 banknotes in 1938-1952. 
• The city is said to have existed during the Bronze Age and belonged to the Hattic civilization, but according to Phygrian tradition, King Midas founded the city as 'Ancyra'. 
• The oldest mosque in Ankara, the Alaeddin Mosque, dates back to AH 574 or 1178 AD, built by a prince of an Anatolian Seljuk Sultan during his reign. 
• Ankara has the largest urban ropeway on the Eurasian continent in 2014, with a 10 passenger gondola lift.