Ankara Castle

Ankara Castle (Turkish: Ankara Kalesi) is a historic fortification in the city of Ankara, Turkey, constructed in or after the 7th century. The earliest fortification on the site was constructed in the 8th century BC by the Phrygians and rebuilt in 278 BC by the Galatians. The castle was rebuilt or renovated under the Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman Empires.

The castle is composed of an inner line of walls with closely spaced towers that encloses an area of about 350 m by 150 m, and an outer line of walls with towers some 40 m 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.).

Text adapted from “Ankara Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ankara Castle ranks #622 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #18 of the 126 mapped in Turkey. Founded c. 650, it is older than 96% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 31 atlas entries founded in the 7th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 6,856 times in the last 60 days, more than 88% of the atlas. 2 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Turkey compares in the castle statistics.

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