The new city, laid out in , is spacious and well planned, with broad boulevards, libraries, museums, embassies, government buildings, and fashionable shops and hotels. The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations contains a notable collection of Hittite artefacts. Notable in this overlay of the images is the transformation of Ankara and the large area of urban development created around the centre of the city.
Another aim of these images is to promote the opportunity to download Landsat data through the ESA portals, where images captured every day are made available in near real time to the users and the scientific community. Ankara, Turkey. More information is available on Wikipedia Ankara. More information is available on Wikipedia Ankara Overlay image Before and After Today our tour over capital cities, stops over Ankara, located in central Turkey, it is both capital of the country and of Ankara Province.
Once you reach the caves, feel free to park anywhere on the sides of the road. There are three main places to visit in the valley of Zir that you should add to your itinerary. It is not possible to locate these spots on Google Maps or any other location providers, so to make sure you will have no issues finding them, I will be writing down the coordinates of each. Also called the Zagar Bridge by some sources, this stone bridge is located right at the beginning of the valley.
Presumed to be built in the Ottoman era, this structure is built with huge cut stone blocks and stands as a fine example of historic Ottoman stonemasonry. The degree of preservation of the bridge is quite impressive. The coordinates of the bridge are as follows: Situated just before the Armenian cemetery is a complex cave network carved inside huge boulders embedded into the hill.
I tried to explore the rooms a little, however, the ground is very slippery and the path that joins the caves to each other is very narrow and dangerous. Considering that the caves are atop a meter feet cliff, it is not wise to try to climb all the way up. In some scientific sources, it is stated this was a cave settlement built by the Byzantines and included long corridors, various rooms and even a rock-cut chapel as part of its infrastructure.
The coordinates of the caves are as follows: The old Armenian cemetery is undoubtedly the most notable site in the valley and the strongest remnant of its past.
Adjacent to the road cutting through the valley, this cemetery is full of old tombstones with Armenian inscriptions on them. Frankly, as I was exploring the cemetery, the astonishment I had in the beginning was soon replaced by disappointment and sadness.
The site is very impressive and beautiful but also neglected and vandalized. This unique cemetery struggles with perhaps what is the most common issue historical sites face in Turkey: treasure hunters. After chatting to local farmers, I found out that treasure hunters occasionally come at night and dig the graves in hopes of finding gold. As such, I witnessed some saddening and appalling scenes of human bones, hollow and decayed from the years, and broken tombstones during my visit. It was, however, a strangely special feeling to walk on the same grounds prominent travelers of the past laid foot on and wrote about.
The tombstones in the cemetery blew my mind, with many of them having legible inscriptions and artwork on them. The coordinates of the old Armenian cemetery are as follows: Old castle walls, cobblestone alleys, small art studios, world-renowned museums, talented buskers, stylish cafes and hole-in-the-wall shops selling a wide range of goods are just some of the allures that the citadel offers.
The castle has households. There is also an old mosque which was previously a church. The houses in the castle are very well maintained. Although most theories point to the Hittites, it is not certain when and by whom the citadel was first built. Over the past several centuries, the citadel was inhabited by the Romans, the Byzantines and the Seljuk Turks, and was chiefly used for defense purposes.
During the Seljuk presence in Anatolia, the citadel changed hands between the Seljuk Turks and the Crusaders multiple times. Later on, the area was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. The Ankara Citadel's final form is the result of the restoration work done in , which was funded and organized by Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mehmed Ali Pasha who was the Ottoman governor of Egypt. During the restoration process, fragments of Roman sarcophagi, marble slabs with Latin inscriptions and pillar heads belonging to Roman structures found in the area were often used in the castle.
Even today, it is still possible to see remnants of the Roman period embedded in the towering walls as you roam the castle grounds. I arrived at the citadel early on a cool, breezy morning and decided to start my day with a light breakfast. Gramofon Cafe is among the most authentic cafes in Ankara.
Even though I was the first customer of the day, my food arrived in less than 10 minutes. I slowly ate my breakfast to the sound of sentimental Turkish songs that always play in the cafe. Can anyone offer a better way to start the day? After breakfast, my initial plan was to head to the castle walls.
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