Balâ, Ankara Balâ, Ankara Bala is a town and district of Ankara Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, 67 km south-east of the city of Ankara. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 19,426 of which 8,506 live in the urban center of Bala. The district covers an area of , and the average elevation is . Bala stands on a high plain, summers are hot, winters are cold and snowy. The town of Bala is small but busy with shops and light manufacturing workshops, the surrounding countryside is used for farming, especially grains and sunflower seeds. Recently
History of Ankara form of "Ankara". In 278 BC, the city, along with the rest of central Anatolia, was occupied by the Celtic speaking Galatians, who were the first to make Ankara one of their main tribal centres, the headquarters of the Tectosage tribe. Other centres were Pessinos, modern Balhisar, for the Trocmi tribe; and "Tavium", to the east of Ankara, for the Tolstibogii tribe. The city was then known as Ancyra. The Celtic element was probably relatively small in numbers; a warrior aristocracy which ruled over Phrygian-speaking peasants. However, the Celtic language continued to spoken in Galatia for many centuries. At the