History of Ankara Phrygia, after an earthquake which severely damaged that city in antiquity. In Phrygian tradition, King Midas was venerated as the founder of Ancyra, but Pausanias mentions that the city was actually far older, in line with the present-day knowledge that we have on its history. There is the possibility that at the time Midas came the city was essentially unpopulated. In the same way by modern standards it could be argued that Ankara did not exist before Atatürk moved the capital of Turkey to the city, since its population before the capital came was almost non-existent in comparison to what
Roman Baths of Ankara settlement material at the base. The ancient city of Ancyra stood at the crossroads between the East and West and during the Roman period, the city's strategic location led to its rise to prominence as the capital of the province of Galatia. To the east of this plateau ran a roadway from the city's sacred precinct, the area of the Temple of Augustus, a section of which, flanked by second or third century grey-veined marble columns with Corinthian capitals, was uncovered during the construction of Çankiri Caddesi, during the development of Ankara into the new Turkish capital in the 1930s.