To see the true size and strength of Ankara castle takes a bit of effort and the years have not been kind to this major Byzantine fortress.
Visiting the Castle of Ankara
The easiest way to get there is probably just to take a taxi and then walk in. It seemed to be one of these places that wasn’t really as geared for tourism as it could be. The castle is a large and sprawling structure but the part we visited was rather small and we didn’t see people in any of the other areas so I assume they are off limits.
There was no entrance fee and is open from 07:00 until 18:30.
I would recommend walking through Hisar Park, which I should have done, to get views of the western ramparts. The northern walls are best seen from the gardens by the Haci Bayram mosque.
Wikiwands site here has a nice summary of the original layout: “The castle is composed of an inner line of walls with closely spaced towers that encloses an area of about 350m by 150m, and an outer line of walls with towers some 40m apart. Both sets of walls were constructed using large quantities of reused masonry. The exact dates of their construction are uncertain, but both postdate the capture and destruction of Ankara by the Persians in, probably, 622 AD (Foss considers that the inner walls may date from the reign of Constans II; the outer walls are generally believed to have been erected slightly later).”
My Experience
We visited the castle of Ankara as part of a week long tour from Trabzon to Istanbul, detailed in my travel blog here. The actual visit was part of a walking tour booked through Viator that covered the War of Independence Museum and the Temple of Augustus before the citadel. We meandered uphill towards the citadel which was Roman then Byzantine and after 1073, Ottoman.
I found the best place to get a sense of the size of the citadel was from the gardens by the Haci Bayram mosque. Once you get to the actual entrance you can see the remodelling as the gate has shrunk to about half its original size. Inside there are lots of buildings with Roman columns or other marble stonework just used as part of a wall. The inside was a bazaar with lots of shops and stalls and we were also able to climb up on the walls but it was difficult to get any appreciation of the place from the inside.
Ankara Castle Photo Gallery
History
Even though the exact date of its initial construction is unknown, some people believe the Hittites (an ancient empire that ruled over north-central Anatolia in 1600 BC), who had a military garrison in Ankara, built the Ankara Castle. However, due to the lack of archeological artifacts to substantiate this fact, the castle is more often associated with the Roman, Byzantine, and Seljuk eras, during which time the structure underwent several renovations.
The castle takes up the entirety of the peak, which overlooks the city and the red-tiled roofs of old Ankara’s historic houses. There is also an exterior wall outfitted with 20 towers, located on the periphery of the old city and built as a protective layer. The fort takes up around 43 square kilometers (16.7 square miles), with a wall that rises to 14-16 meters (50-52.5 feet) and includes 42 towers. The castle’s highest point, called Akkale or Alitaşı, stands tall in the southeastern corner. One of the two castle entrances also has an epitaph that belongs to the Ilkhanate Empire (the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire), while the structure’s northwestern section displays writing belonging to the Seljuk Empire.
Even though the outer wall experienced damage over time, the castle itself was able to survive intact. During invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries, the remains of Roman structures in the city became renovation material, with marble blocks and pillar heads still seen in the castle’s south-facing sections.
Indeed, the castle witnessed many invasions, undergoing many repairs and renovations beginning with the invasion of Galata (a domain in Ankara) in the 2nd century BC. In 217 AD, Roman Emperor Caracalla had the walls repaired, and after the Persians had defeated Emperor Severus Alexander between 222 and 260, the castle was almost entirely destroyed. In the 7th century, the Romans renovated the structure once more, and by 688, Constantine the Great built a new outer wall to accommodate the city’s new borders. In 1073, the castle was taken over by the Seljuk Empire, and during the Ottoman era, in 1832, the son of Maktul Ibrahim Pasha repaired the castle.
References
The culture trip has an the most detailed history I could find of the castle, here and used above.
Wiki has a great history of Ankara city and a little about the castle here.
The small Wiki page on the castle itself is here.