While Ankara is a large, modern city, its history goes back thousands of years. The ancient name of the city was Ancyra. We began our day visiting a stretch of ancient Roman road, covered by glass. A short stroll away was a temple to Augustus. The Romans extended a a temple to the regional goddess Cybele to also worship the emperor.
A short drive away, we visited the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. Unfortunately, most of it is being remodeled (due to be opened next week – arg!), so there wasn’t as much to see. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the sculptures, coins, pottery, and other objects on display.
We headed south, stopping along the way at a caravanserai, built about 1230 as one of many caravan stopping points along the silk road that connected Istanbul with China.
Traversing farther through the central Anatolia plateau, the terrain changed as we moved into new territory in the region of Cappadocia. I’ll write about this place in more detail tomorrow, but the short explanation is that there is soft material here for carving caves, which has been done for at least 1500 years. Our hotel is built into a set of these caves.
