Travel Zone - Turkey, Ankara (Atakule, Botanical garden, Kocatepe Mosque, Waterfalls) About Ankara: Ankara (historically known with the names Ancyra and Angora) is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city, Istanbul being the largest. Centrally located in Anatolia, Ankara is an important commercial and industrial city. It is the center of the Turkish Government, and houses all foreign embassies. It is an important crossroads of trade, strategically located at the centre of Turkey's highway and railway networks, and serves as the marketing centre for the surrounding agricultural area. The city was famous for its long-haired Angora goat and its prized wool (mohair), a unique breed of cat (Angora cat), Angora rabbits and their prized wool (Angora wool), pears, honey, and the region's muscat grapes. Ankara is situated in one of the driest places of Turkey and surrounded mostly by steppe vegetation except for the forested areas on the southern periphery. Ankara is a very old city with various Hittite, Phrygian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman archaeological sites. The hill which overlooks the city is crowned by the ruins of the old castle, which adds to the picturesqueness of the view, but only a few historic structures surrounding the old citadel have survived to the present day. There are, however, many well-preserved remains of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine architecture, the most remarkable being the Temple of Augustus and Rome (20 BC) which is also known as the Monumentum Ancyranum. City of Ankara had a population of 4,338,620 and its metropolitan municipality 4,965,542. The region's history can be traced back to the Bronze Age Hattic civilization, which was succeeded in the 2nd millennium BC by the Hittites, in the 10th century BC by the Phrygians, and later by the Lydians, Persians, Greeks, Galatians, Romans, Byzantines, and Turks (the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, the Ottoman Empire and Turkey). Ankara has a continental climate, with cold, snowy winters due to its elevation and inland location, and hot, dry summers. Rainfall occurs mostly during the spring and autumn. Esenboğa International Airport, located in the north-east of the city, is Ankara's main airport. Ankara Intercity Bus Terminal (Turkish: Ankara Şehirlerarası Terminal İşletmesi, AŞTİ) is an important part of the bus network which covers every neighbourhood in the city. The Ankara Central Station is a major rail hub in Turkey. The Turkish State Railways operates passenger train service from Ankara to other major cities in Turkey. he Electricity, Gas, Bus General Directorate (EGO)[28] operates the Ankara Metro and other forms of public transportation. Ankara is currently served by suburban rail and two subway lines with about 300,000 total daily commuters, and three additional subway lines are under construction. About Atakule: Atakule is a 125m (410 feet) high communications and observation tower located in the Çankaya district of central Ankara, Turkey and is one of the primary landmarks of the city. As the district of Çankaya is itself on a hill, the tower can be spotted from almost anywhere in the city during clear days. The tower's design came from architect Ragıp Buluç and construction lasted from 1987 to 1989. The top section of the tower houses an open terrace and a revolving restaurant named Sevilla, which makes a full 360 degree rotation in one hour. On top of Sevilla is another restaurant, Dome, which is non-revolving and located directly under the cupola. Under the terrace is a café, named UFO. The bottom structures house a shopping mall and several indoor and outdoor restaurants. In Turkish ata means ancestor, usually used to refer Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and kule means tower. The tower was opened on 13 October 1989 by President Turgut Özal. About Kocatepe Mosque: The Kocatepe Mosque is the largest mosque in Ankara. It was built between 1967 and 1987 in the Kocatepe quarter in Kızılay, and its size and prominent situation have made it a landmark that can be seen from almost anywhere in central Ankara. This mosque, which can accommodate 24,000 worshippers, is one of the largest mosques of the world, and accepted by many as the frontiers of modern Islamic architecture. this mosque is built in a neo-classical Ottoman architecture style, and is an eclectic building inspired by the Selimiye mosque in Edirne, and the Sehzade and Sultan Ahmet mosques in Istanbul. Big Mojo Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

• published: 17 Sep 2013
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