Çankaya, Ankara

Çankaya is the central metropolitan district of the city of Ankara, the capital of Turkey, and an administrative district of Ankara Province. According to the 2000 census, the population of the urban center is 797,109 (2010 est.) which swells up to 2 million or more people during the day. The district covers an area of 268 km² (103 sq mi), and the urban center lies at an average elevation of 986 m (3,235 ft).

The President of Turkey resides here, in the "Çankaya Köşkü" presidential compound. The area is also home to many of the capital's embassies, government departments and best-known landmarks. Çankaya is the heart of the city, a fashionable business and cultural centre as well as the centre of government.

History

Until the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, Çankaya was a hillside of orchards and gardens to the south of the city, which had grown up in time, surrounding the Ankara Castle (Kale) on the opposite hill. Everything changed in the 1920s when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk came to stay in one of the garden houses. Atatürk selected Ankara as capital of the new republic and in the 1920s and 30s the city quickly grew, especially in the direction of Çankaya. In 1934 the writer Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu described the area as "a wooden bridge, a dirt road, and when you come round the hill you see a hillside, green in gentle contours. That's Çankaya." Çankaya eventually developed into one of the largest central districts of Ankara in later years.

Çankaya (disambiguation)

Çankaya may refer to:

Çankaya (İzmir Metro)

Çankaya is an underground station on the Üçyol-Bornova Line of the İzmir Metro.

Coordinates: 38°25′21″N 27°08′16″E / 38.42250°N 27.13778°E / 38.42250; 27.13778