Ankara Province

Template:Infobox Province TR

Ankara Province (Turkish: Ankara ili) in central Turkey is the location of the country's capital, the city of Ankara.

Ankara also gave its name to the Ottoman Empire's Ankara Province (vilayet) which covered a larger area than the current province.

Geography

Situated on the large plains of central Anatolia, with mountain forests to the north and the dry plain of Konya to the south. The plain is irrigated by the Kızılırmak and Sakarya River systems, the Sarıyar reservoir and many natural lakes and pools. 50% of the land is used for agriculture, 28% is forest and another 10% is meadow and grazing land. The large salt lake Tuz Golu partly lies in the province. The highest point is the 2,015m Işık Dağı.

The climate is hot and dry in summer, cold and snowing in winter, wetter in the north of the province than the drier plains to the south.

History

See Ankara for the history of this region which has seen the passing of numerous great civilisations including Phrygians, Lydians, Persians and Alexander the Great, Galatians; the city of Ankara becoming a fortified stronghold of the Byzantines; and then falling to the Seljuk Turks, and later the Ottoman Empire; and finally being chosen by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as the site of Turkish parliament in 1920 and subsequently in 1923 as the capital city of the Republic of Turkey.