subject: Where Is Ankara [print this page] Ankara is the capital of TurkeyAnkara is the capital of Turkey. It is in Anatolia, or Asia Minor, which used to be called Turkey-in-Asia. Ankara is an old city, founded more than two thousand years ago (in 200 B.C.), but it has not been the capital of Turkey very long. It was made the capital in 1920 by Kemal Ataturk, the leader who got rid of the sultans, or kings, who had ruled Turkey for hundreds of years. He made Turkey a republic like the United States. Before then, Constantinople (now called Istanbul) was the capital.
At that time Ankara was a very small city, but now it is a large one, with about 300,000 people living there. In 1929 the name was changed from Angora, its ancient name, to Ankara. After World War I the people of Turkey discarded many backward customs, and adopted modern ones. Ankara became the center of this movement. Today it is like a modern European city, with theaters, schools, libraries, and wide streets lined with shops and bright with electric lights. In past centuries, many nations ruled Ankara-Persians, Romans, and Mohammedans Under its old name, Angora, since Biblical times, it has been the center of a great wool industry. This wool, called mohair, is made from the long hair of the Angora goat. It will not "felt," or mat down, as other wools do. Rugs made of mohair are among the finest in the world.The city of Ankara lies in the center of Anatolia on the eastern edge of the great, high Anatolian Plateau, at an altitude of 850 meters above sea level.
