Turkey · Central Anatolia
Ankara
The capital built from scratch to found a republic, sitting on four thousand years of Anatolia.
Ankara is the capital Atatürk chose in 1923: a small Anatolian hill town remade into a planned government city on the steppe. Its two great draws are Anıtkabir, his monumental mausoleum, and the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, which holds the best Hittite and prehistoric collection anywhere. Beneath the ministries sits an older city of Roman temple walls, a Byzantine citadel and Ottoman lanes, and it is a calmer, more everyday place than Istanbul.
Suggested stay
2–4 days
Language
Turkish
Currency
TRY
Timezone
UTC+3
Why you'll love Ankara
Anıtkabir Atatürk's mausoleum is the country's civic shrine, a colonnaded hilltop precinct with a museum of the War of Independence and a formal changing of the guard.
Anatolian archaeology The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations runs from Çatalhöyük's wall paintings through Hittite and Phrygian stone, and Hattusa and Gordion are both day trips away.
The old citadel Inside the walls of Ankara Castle, lanes of timber-framed Ottoman houses climb to ramparts looking over the whole city.
A working capital Students, civil servants and diplomats set the pace, so the cafes and bookshops belong to residents rather than tour groups.
Best time to visit
Apr-Oct
18-31° days
39.921° N, 32.854° E
UTC+3 · Europe/Istanbul
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Weather & when to go to Ankara
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Apr-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Ankara
December and January are cold, grey and often snowy on the high plateau, and short days make the day trips hard work. Summer is hot and dry but graded fine; the city is simply quieter when parliament and the universities break.
Top things to do in Ankara
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Anıtkabir - Atatürk's mausoleum
history 👍 PopularA processional avenue lined with stone lions leads to a vast colonnaded square and the hall holding Atatürk's cenotaph. Underneath, a museum walks through the War of Independence and his personal belongings; the guard ceremony is taken seriously, so dress and behave accordingly.
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Museum of Anatolian Civilizations - Hittite and Phrygian halls
history culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedHoused in a restored Ottoman covered market and caravanserai below the citadel. Çatalhöyük's wall paintings, Hittite orthostat reliefs and sun discs, and Phrygian finds from Gordion make it the best single museum for pre-classical Anatolia.
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Ankara Castle - the citadel quarter
history scenic 👍 PopularByzantine walls studded with reused Roman masonry wrap a hilltop neighbourhood of old wooden houses, small mosques and carpet and craft shops. Climb the ramparts late in the day for the view across the whole city.
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Temple of Augustus and Hacı Bayram Mosque - the Res Gestae
history ⭐ Highly recommendedThe walls of a Roman temple stand beside a revered fifteenth-century mosque and shrine. Carved into the temple is the best surviving copy of Augustus's own account of his reign, in Latin and Greek.
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Roman Baths - Ancyra's bath complex
historyThe excavated brick floors and hypocaust pillars of a large imperial bath house in Ulus, with an open-air colonnade of inscribed stones. A short, quiet stop between the museum and the temple.
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First Parliament Building - War of Independence Museum
history 👍 PopularThe modest stone building in Ulus where the Grand National Assembly first met in 1920 and ran the war that founded the republic. The chamber is kept as it was, school-desk benches and all.
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Kocatepe Mosque - the modern landmark
culture artsA huge twentieth-century mosque built in classical Ottoman style, with four minarets visible across central Ankara. The interior is bright, gilded and spacious, and it is the city's main place of worship.
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Hamamönü - restored Ottoman streets
culture arts foodA few blocks of timber-framed Ottoman houses restored as tea gardens, cafes and craft shops. Pleasant for an evening stroll and a meal, even if it is more set-piece than lived-in.
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Tunalı Hilmi - the capital's cafe street
nightlife music foodThe long street running through Kavaklıdere is where Ankara goes out: bookshops, cafes, bars and people-watching, with Kuğulu Park at one end. The best place to see the city's student and professional life.
Best areas to stay in Ankara
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Kızılay
Most visitors $$Busy central hub, transit and students
Explore hotels in Kızılay →
Ulus
History on foot $Old town below the citadel
Explore hotels in Ulus →
Kavaklıdere and Tunalı Hilmi
Evenings out $$Leafy streets, embassies and cafes
Explore hotels in Kavaklıdere and Tunalı Hilmi →
Çankaya
Comfort seekers $$$Upscale hillside residential and diplomatic
Explore hotels in Çankaya →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Ankara
Getting to & around Ankara
Getting there
Fly into Esenboğa Airport north of the city, or arrive by high-speed train from Istanbul or Konya.
Flight
Ankara Esenboğa Airport (ESB)
About 28 km north of the centre. Airport coaches run to the AŞTİ bus terminal and Kızılay in around 40 minutes to an hour depending on traffic; taxis are quicker off-peak.
Train
Ankara YHT station
High-speed trains link Ankara with Istanbul's Asian side, Eskişehir and Konya. The capital is also the starting point of the long overnight train east to Kars.
Coach
AŞTİ bus terminal
Intercity coaches from across Turkey, including frequent services from Cappadocia, arrive at AŞTİ, which is on the Ankaray line into Kızılay.
Getting around
Metro and Ankaray
Several rail lines meet at Kızılay and reach AŞTİ, Ulus and the suburbs. Useful for the main axis, less so for the hillier southern districts.
TBC
City bus
An extensive municipal network fills the gaps the rail lines leave, including up to Çankaya.
TBC
Taxi
Yellow metered taxis are plentiful and are the easy way up to Anıtkabir's gate or the citadel.
TBC
Walking
Ulus, the citadel and Hamamönü cluster together on foot, and Kızılay to Kavaklıdere is a pleasant walk. The distances between those clusters are longer than they look.
Free
Day trips from Ankara
Gordion
Half dayPhrygian capital
King Midas's capital. The great burial mound, one of the largest in Anatolia, has a timber tomb chamber you can walk into, and the excavated citadel and small site museum sit nearby.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1.5 hr by car or tour, west via Polatlı
Hattusa
Full dayHittite capital
The Bronze Age capital of the Hittite empire, spread over a huge hillside with the Lion Gate, the King's Gate and the rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya. Long in the car, but it completes the story the museum starts.
Getting there
car | tour
About 2.5-3 hr each way by car or tour to Boğazkale
Beypazarı
Full dayOttoman market town
A hillside town of restored Ottoman mansions, silver workshops and weekend markets, known across Turkey for its mineral water and local pastries. The favourite Ankara weekend escape.
Getting there
bus | car
About 1.5 hr by bus or car
Safranbolu
1-2 daysOttoman heritage town
The best-preserved Ottoman town in Turkey, with streets of timber-framed merchants' houses, a caravanserai and old bazaar lanes. Too far to rush, so most people stay a night in one of the old houses.
Getting there
bus
About 3 hr by coach
A little history of Ankara
The hill under Ankara Castle has been settled since at least the Phrygian era, and Celtic Galatians held it before Augustus made Ancyra the capital of the Roman province of Galatia. It stayed an important garrison town through Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman rule, famous for the long-haired Angora goat and its mohair, and in 1402 Timur crushed the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I on the plain outside it.
By the end of the empire it was a modest provincial town. Atatürk made it the headquarters of the national resistance in 1919, the Grand National Assembly opened here in 1920, and in 1923 it was declared capital of the new republic, deliberately away from Istanbul. Planned boulevards, ministries and a new city were laid out on the steppe, and Anıtkabir was completed on the hill above them in 1953.
Augustus annexes Galatia and makes Ancyra its provincial capital.
Timur defeats and captures the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I at the Battle of Ankara.
Atatürk arrives in Ankara and makes it the base of the national movement.
The Grand National Assembly holds its first session in Ulus.
The Battle of Sakarya, fought west of the city, halts the advance on Ankara.
Ankara is declared the capital, and the Republic of Turkey is proclaimed weeks later.
Atatürk dies in Istanbul and is laid in temporary rest in Ankara.
Anıtkabir is completed and Atatürk is moved to the mausoleum.
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type C / F
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+90
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
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FAQs about Ankara
▸ When is the best time to visit Ankara?
April to October. Spring and early autumn are the most comfortable for walking between the sights, and summer is hot and dry but settled. December and January are cold and grey on the plateau, with snow likely.
▸ How many days do you need in Ankara?
Two days covers Anıtkabir, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, the citadel and the Roman sites. Add a third or fourth for Gordion or Hattusa, or a night in Safranbolu.
▸ Is Ankara worth visiting, or should I stay in Istanbul?
Worth it if you care about Anatolian archaeology or modern Turkish history. The museum and Anıtkabir have no equivalent in Istanbul, and it is a natural stop on the rail and road route to Cappadocia.
▸ Is Ankara expensive?
Noticeably cheaper than Istanbul or the coastal resorts for food and hotels, though the upscale Çankaya end is priced for diplomats and business travellers.
▸ Is Ankara safe to visit?
Generally, and ordinary street crime is low by big-city standards. As a capital it sees demonstrations and a heavy security presence around government buildings; avoid gatherings and check your own government's current advice before you travel.
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