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Ulus: the first parliament, the Roman baths and Hacı Bayram

Where the republic was declared, where Augustus carved his own obituary, and where Ankara still comes to pray — all within ten minutes' walk.

Free-ishhalf a daya weekday morning; Fridays are crowded at the mosque

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Why do it?

Ulus is the old centre — the town Atatürk arrived in by train in 1919, and the square where the republic was run for its first decade. On it stand the First Grand National Assembly building, where parliament met from 1920 to 1924 and which is now the Kurtuluş Savaşı (War of Independence) Museum, and the Second Assembly a few doors down, now the Cumhuriyet Museum. Ten minutes north on Çankırı Caddesi are the Roman baths of Ancyra, built under Caracalla in the third century and laid out as an open-air museum of steles and inscriptions. Uphill is Hacı Bayram Veli's fifteenth-century mosque and tomb — the city's spiritual centre — built hard against the Temple of Augustus, whose walls carry the emperor's own account of his reign, the Res Gestae, in the best-preserved copy anywhere. Nowhere else in Turkey puts Rome, the Sufis and the republic on one hillside.

The Smileys Take

Do it as a loop from Ulus square: the first parliament first (it is small, and standing in the room where the country was invented is the point), then the baths, then up to Hacı Bayram. The mosque is very much in use — go between prayers, cover up, and expect pilgrims, wedding parties and pigeons. The Augustus temple is under scaffolding and has been for years; you see it through a fence, which is still worth it — ⚠ VERIFY whether the site itself is open before promising a group the inscriptions up close. The state museums here take Müze Kart, which pays for itself in a week in this city. Finish with a simit and tea in the square: Ulus is scruffier than Çankaya and we like it more for that.

How to do it

Kurtuluş Savaşı Museum (I. TBMM) on Ulus square — the assembly hall with the original desks.
Cumhuriyet Museum (II. TBMM) a few doors along Cumhuriyet Caddesi.
Roman Baths open-air museum on Çankırı Caddesi — quieter than it has any right to be.
Hacı Bayram mosque and tomb, and the Temple of Augustus beside it.
Ulus is the metro's Ulus stop; the whole loop is flat except the last climb to the mosque.