This is Ankara Castle, taken from the top of the walls of the other half of Ankara castle.  People have been living in the region since at least the Middle Paleolithic (60,000 to 40,000 BC), but the city of Ankara was supposed to have been founded by Midas in the 9th century BC.  It was a regional capital under the Roman Empire, a caravan stop under the Ottoman Empire, and (on 13 October 1923) it became the capital of Turkey.  That choice surprised Ankara, too.

This is the wall structure from which these pictures were taken.  One of the many things that I like about Turkey is the complete lack of safety equipment.  If you are such a pudding-head that you fall off the top of the wall to your screaming death as a steaming pile of road pizza, it was your own fault.  While they have lawyers here, they must thin the herd a bit more forcefully than Americans do...

This picture shows a bit more of the top of the walls.  No safety rails, no Park Rangers, no problems!

Some more of the walls, with Ankara in the background.  It was raining a bit.

Ankara boasts about three million people.  Luckily they don't all do castle trips on weekends.

Hey, I can see my house from here!  Well, not really, but you can see Atakule, a 125 meter dome-topped tower that is a few blocks from my apartment.  It is on the horizon a bit left of dead center.

Still no safety rail...

The buildings come right up to the wall, but unlike the castle they have not been repaired.

From around the corner, looking along the "steep" side of the castle.

Heading back down the walls, the gates show the thickness.  Stone facing with a rubble fill; not much for cannon or large siege engines, but fairly stout for guys with pointy sticks.

The wall complex is fairly large, and has many shops (most with apartments above them).  This is part of Ulus, the "old city".

Note the bits and pieces of Roman stonework in the courtyard of this little restaurant.

Some of the houses are in better shape than others.

Hey, a carpet shop!  In this part of town, "Buyer Beware" is a sound adage.  Tourists, like in any region, are fair game.  Carpets here sell for a bit more than they do in other places in Ankara.

Note the chunk of Roman building used as repair in this wall.  This is common through the whole site; the gate in the earlier picture used a rather large fluted column as the horizontal support (interesting, but it was too dark inside for my little camera flash).

More Roman "bits"

That is all (for now) for Ankara Castle!