Ankara

Ankara is the capital of Turkey and Turkey's second largest city after Istanbul (the former imperial capital), having outranked İzmir in the 20th century. Ankara became the new Turkish capital on the establishment of the Republic on 29 October 1923, succeeding in this role the former Turkish capital Istanbul (Constantinople) following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. 

The government is a prominent employer, but Ankara is also an important commercial and industrial city, located at the center of Turkey's road and railway networks. The area is also known for its pears, honey and muscat grapes. Although located in one of the driest places of Turkey and surrounded mostly by steppe vegetation except for the forested areas on the southern periphery, Ankara can be considered a green city in terms of green areas per inhabitant, at 72 square meters (775 square feet) per head. 

Ankara is a very old city with various Hittite, Phrygian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman archaeological sites. The historic center of the town is a rocky hill rising 150 m over the left bank of Ankara Çayı, and the tributary of the Sakarya River, the classical Sangarius. Although few of its outworks have survived, there are well-preserved examples of Roman and Ottoman architecture throughout the city, the bridge remarkable being the 20 bc Temple of Augustus and Rome that boasts the Monumentum Ancyranum, the inscription recording the Res Gestae Divi Augusti. (wikipedia.org)