Polatlı (formerly

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

: Γόρδιον, Górdion and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

: Gordium) is a municipality and

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Ankara Province Ankara Province (, ) is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey with the capital city Ankara. Its area is 25,632 km2, and its population is 5,782,285 (2022). History The site of the modern city has been home to settlements ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its area is 3,618 km², and its population is 128,378 (2022). It is 80 km west of the Turkish capital

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

, on the road to

Eskişehir Eskişehir ( , ; from 'old' and 'city') is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 821 315 (Odunpazari + Tebebasi), with a metropolitan population of 921 630. The city is l ...

. Its elevation is 853 m.

Geography

Polatlı is situated at the heart of the high Anatolian Plateau, a large

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

covered with grass. Far from the coast, it has a typical

steppe climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi ...

. The winters are cold and generally snowy, the summers are hot and dry. Spring and autumn are the wettest seasons (especially the former). Polatlı is one of the most productive agricultural districts in Turkey and is best known for its

cereal A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...

production, especially

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

and

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

. Polatlı is one of Turkey's largest grain stores.

Sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and that is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together with ...

melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. It can also specifically refer to ''Cucumis melo'', commonly known as the "true melon" or simply "melon". The term "melon" can apply to both the p ...

and

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

are also grown.

History

Ancient settlement

The ancient

Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...

n capital

Gordion Gordion (Phrygian language, Phrygian: ; ; or ; ) was the capital city of ancient Phrygia. It was located at the site of modern Yassıhüyük, Polatlı, Yassıhüyük, about southwest of Ankara (capital of Turkey), in the immediate vicinity of ...

is 10 km from the city of Polatlı. On the outskirts of Polatli there is an archaeological mound of the same name, the remains of a multi-layered settlement of the Bronze Age (3rd-2nd millennium BC). Since the mound was being used by local people as a quarry, rescue excavations of its southern and central parts were carried out in 1949 by the Anglo-Turkish expedition led by Seton Lloyd, and Nuri Gökçe, then the director of the ‘Hittite Museum in Ankara’. It was a village along the important caravan route.

Classical antiquity

On his expedition to the east,

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

cut the famous

Gordian Knot The cutting of the Gordian Knot is an Ancient Greek legend associated with Alexander the Great in Gordium in Phrygia, regarding a complex knot that tied an oxcart. Reputedly, whoever could untie it would be destined to rule all of Asia. In 33 ...

, an omen of his coming rule over the whole Asia. Pessinus, an ancient city on the upper river Sangarios (modern day Sakarya River), is also within the borders of Polatlı. The mythological Phrygian

King Midas Midas (; ) was a king of Phrygia with whom many myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house. His father was Gordias, and his mother was Cybele. The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek m ...

is said to have ruled from Pessinus and to be buried here. Polatlı also occupied an important place in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922 as the Battle of Sakarya (August 23-September 13, 1921) was fought here, the utmost eastern point reached by the advancing

Greek Army The Hellenic Army (, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece. The term '' Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is the largest of the three branches of the Hellenic Armed F ...

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

. There are two memorial burial grounds of those lost in the battle. There is also a monument named Mehmetçik Monument about the battle just west of Polatlı.

Hacıtuğrul mound

Since the 1970s, excavations by Turkish archaeologists have been carried out near the modern town and train station of Yenidoğan, Polatlı, 15 km northeast of Polatli and 20 km from

. This site, near Hacıtuğrul, is now known as :tr:Hacıtuğrul Höyüğü. The remains of monumental fortifications and other buildings of the city from

n times, which exceeded Gordion in size, were found here. Five burial mounds were found in the vicinity.

Composition

There are 95

neighbourhoods A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

in Polatlı District:Mahalle
Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 22 May 2023. * Adatoprakpınar * Avdanlı * Avşar * Babayakup * Basrı * Beşköprü * Beyceğiz * Beylikköprü * Çamlıca * Çanakçı * Çekirdeksiz * Çimenceğiz * Cumhuriyet * Esentepe * Eskikarsak * Eskiköseler * Eskipolatlı * Fatih * Gazi * Gedikli * Gençali * Gülpınar * Gülveren * Gümüşyaka * Gündoğan * Güreş * Hacımusa * Hacımuslu * Hacıosmanoğlu * Hacıtuğrul * Hıdırşeyh * İğciler * Ilıca * İnler * İstiklal * Kabakköy * Karaahmet * Karabenli * Karacaahmet * Karahamzalı * Karailyas * Karakaya * Karakuyu *

Karapınar Karapınar, formerly known as Barta is a municipality and district of Konya Province, Turkey. Its area is 2,623 km2, and its population is 50,323 (2022). Volcanic Karapınar Field is located nearby. Composition There are 42 neighbourhoods i ...

* Karayavşan * Kargalı * Kayabaşı * Kıranharmanı * Kızılcakışla * Kocahacılı * Kurtuluş * Kuşcu * Macun * Mehmetakif * Müslüm * Oğuzlar * Olukpınar * Ömerler * Ördekgölü * Özyurt * Poyraz * Sabanca * Şabanözü * Sakarya * Sarıhalil * Sarıoba * Sazlar * Şehitlik * Şentepe * Şeyhali * Şıhahmetli * Sinanlı * Sincik * Sivri * Taşpınar * Tatlıkuyu * Toydemir * Tüfekçioğlu * Türkkarsak * Türktaciri * Üçpınar * Uzunbey * Yağcıoğlu * Yağmurbaba * Yaralı * Yassıhüyük * Yeni * Yenice * Yenidoğan * Yeniköseler * Yenimehmetli * Yeşilöz * Yıldızlı * Yüzükbaşı * Zafer

Polatlı today

Today, Polatlı is an important district of Ankara on the main road which connects the capital to the west of Turkey. The city has a good range of restaurants, bars, schools and other important amenities but still a quiet rural feel to it, and little social life except cafes, patisseries and window shopping on a Sunday afternoon. There are car repair workshops but otherwise little industry. Polatlı is trying to become an independent province from Ankara and "we want to be a city" graffiti can be seen in the town. There is a military base here and the

Turkish Army The Turkish Land Forces () is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for Army, land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Significant campaigns since the ...

Artillery School was established in Polatlı in the early 1940s and is still an important institution in the town. Polatlıspor is a minor league football club that once climbed into the second league. There is a large statue of a

kangaroo Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

on the main road into city.

Longwave transmitter

Near Polatli, there is a longwave broadcasting transmitter, which works on 180 kHz with a transmitter output power of 1200 kW. It uses as antenna a single 250 metres tall mast situated at 39°45'22"N 32°25'5"E. The station is known as "Polatlı Vericisi."

References

External links

District governor's official website
**
District municipality's official website

Everyday images of Polatlı
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polatli Populated places in Ankara Province Cities in Turkey Districts of Ankara Province Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey