Çankaya & Atakule

Today, Çankaya brings to mind ministries, embassies and Atakule reaching for the sky. But what would we have seen if we had climbed these same ridges a hundred years ago? Vineyards, orchards and a few stone vineyard houses scattered among them… It isn’t easy today to imagine that one of the capital’s busiest districts once dozed in the shade of grape clusters.