Ankara is a popular tourist destination in Turkey with a double identity of two cities that is due to the breakneck pace at which it has developed since being declared capital of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Until then Ankara – known as Angora – had been a small provincial city, famous chiefly for the production of soft goat's wool. The city featured prominently in Turkey 's war of independence, which was led by the legendary Mustafa Kemal Ataturk following the First World War, which left the country controlled by Britain, France and the despised Greek occupying army. Ataturk fled Istanbul and organized the military resistance in Ankara, driving the occupiers out of the country, then negotiating a settlement that gave the Turks control of Anatolia, the land mass that makes up almost all of modern-day Turkey. This led to Ankara 's establishment as the capital of the Turkish Republic.

This city still exists, in and around the old citadel that was the site of the original settlement. The other Ankara is the modern metropolis that has grown up around a carefully planned attempt to create a seat of government worthy of a modern, Western-looking state. It's worth visiting just to see how successful this has been, although there's not much else to the place, and the museums and handful of other sights need only detain you for a day or two at most. The city is famed for Museum of Anatolian Civilization, which houses 500 year old Ottoman buildings.

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