Altındağ, Ankara

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Altındağ
Ankara Castle in Altındağ
Ankara Castle in Altındağ
Location of Altındağ, Ankara within Turkey.
Location of Altındağ, Ankara within Turkey.
Coordinates: 39°58′N 32°54′E / 39.967, 32.9
Country Flag of Turkey Turkey
Region Central Anatolia
Province Ankara
Government
 - Governor Fatih Ahmet Kurt
 - Mayor Veysel Tiryaki
Area
 - District 175 km² (67.6 sq mi)
Elevation 850 m (2,789 ft)
Population (2000)[1]
 - District 407,101
 - Density 2,326.29/km² (6,025.1/sq mi)
 - Urban 400,023
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 - Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code 06xxx
Area code(s) 0312
Licence plate 06
Website: www.altindag.gov.tr

Altındağ is a metropolitan district of Ankara Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, part of the city of Ankara. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 407,101 of which 400,023 live in the urban center of Altındağ.[1][2] The district covers an area of 175 km² (68 sq mi),[3] and the average elevation is 850 m (2,789 ft).

Contents

[edit] Geography

Located just outside the city centre, (beyond the district of Ulus as far as the large Altınpark), this hillside has long been home to the workers in the city of Ankara but Altındağ remains one of the poorer quarters of the capital, with a high rate of illiteracy. The hillside is covered with illegally-built gecekondu housing, home to low-income families. Among the housing there are some municipal buildings, public housing, state housing for civil servants and lots of small workshops doing car repairs and other light mechanical work.

The ancient Ankara Castle is in Altındağ and there has recently been investment in restoration work. With this architectural heritage, Altındağ is a member of the Norwich-based European Association of Historic Towns and Regions.[4]

[edit] History

Altındağ includes parts of the old Ottoman city of Ankara, (which was merely a regional town before Ankara became the capital of the Republic of Turkey in 1923).

This was one of the first gecekondu developments in Turkey, when in the 1970s people illegally built one-bedroom cottages on small plots of land; then in the 80s and 90s these plots were sold to developers who replaced the cottages with apartment buildings.

[edit] Prominent neighbourhoods

  • Aydınlıkevler - a quiet residential neighbourhood of civil servants and other members of Ankara's middle class; centred on an avenue of schools, banks and shops; contains the SSK teaching hospital, a military officers housing compound, the headquarters of Türk Telekom, Ankara University's faculty of agriculture and Altınpark.
  • The gecekondu - By legend areas such as Çin Çin, Yenidoğan and Telsizler are dangerous neighbourhoods inhabited by gangs of knife-wielding supporters of Ankaragücü football club, unreconstructed 1970s political thugs, drug dealers cruising in luxury automobiles and other swaggering local heroes, where the police travel in armoured cars and even grocery trucks have guards; not for the fashionable or the faint-hearted; streets of struggle, running with blood and sweat. This is clearly an exaggeration.
  • Hacı Bayram - conservative area, home to one of the oldest mosques in Ankara, the mosque and tomb of the 14th C. Ankara-born mystic Haci Bayram Veli, famous for prophesying the conquest of Constantinople, and then founding his own sufi sect. The district has recently been renovated by urban planner Raci Bademli.

[edit] Places of interest

A panorama of Ankara from the castle.
A panorama of Ankara from the castle.
  • Altınpark - A large park, formerly a golf course, noted for its 10 metre high statue of a loaf of bread at the entrance; contains a fairground, go-karting, ice-skating, large pools for boating and fishing, the Feza Gürsey science centre, and much more.
  • Çamlık - view of the city from the hill
  • Ankara Castle (kale) - the hilltop heart of the old city of Ankara, built by the Galatians and the Byzantines, now surrounded with antique shops, coffee houses and bar/restaurants in restored Ottoman-period wooden houses, where traditional Turkish music (fasıl) is played late into the evening. One of Ankara's few historical sites.
  • Karapürçek - location of Ankara's annual oil-wrestling tournament.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Turkish Statistical Institute. Census 2000, Key statistics for urban areas of Turkey (XLS) (Turkish). Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
  2. ^ GeoHive. Statistical information on Turkey's administrative units (English). Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
  3. ^ Statoids. Statistical information on districts of Turkey (English). Retrieved on 2008-04-23.
  4. ^ European Association of Historic Towns and Regions. Historic Towns of Turkey (DOC) (English). Retrieved on 2008-03-28.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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Coordinates: 39°57′49″N, 32°54′12″E

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