Kırıkkale is the capital of the

Kırıkkale Province Kırıkkale Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey. It is located on the crossroads of major highways east of Ankara leading east to the Black Sea region. With its rapid population growth it has become an industrial center. The provincial capi ...

in the

Central Anatolia The Central Anatolia Region ( tr, İç Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The largest city in the region is Ankara. Other big cities are Konya, Kayseri, Eskişehir, Sivas, and Aksaray. Located in Central Turkey, it is bordered ...

region of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. It is located 80 km east of

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

which is the capital city of

. According to the 2000 census, the population of the province is 280,834, of which 192,705 live in the city of Kırıkkale. The name of the city means ''broken castle''. The town of Kırıkkale is located on the Ankara-

Kayseri Kayseri (; el, Καισάρεια) is a large Industrialisation, industrialised List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. The Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality area is comp ...

railway near the

Kızılırmak River The Kızılırmak (, Turkish for "Red River"), once known as the Halys River ( grc, Ἅλυς) and Alis River ( hy, Ալիս), is the longest river flowing entirely within Turkey. It is a source of hydroelectric power and is not used for naviga ...

in central Turkey. Formerly a village, it owes its rapid rise in population mainly to the establishment of steel mills in the 1950s. These works, among the largest in the country, specialize in high-quality alloy steel and machinery. In the 1960s, chemical plants were added and in 1986, the

Tüpraş Kırıkkale Oil Refinery Tüpraş Kırıkkale Oil Refinery ( tr, Tüpraş Kırıkkale Rafinerisi) is an oil refinery in Kırıkkale, central Turkey. It is owned and operated by Tüpraş, the country's only oil refiner with four refineries. The refinery is located on the ...

was established. Kırıkkale University is located in the city.

History

The name of the city supposedly comes from the name "Kırık" a village 3 km north of the city combined with another name called "Kale", meaning castle, in the centre of the city, the two were put together to make 'Kırıkkale'. Kırıkkale in Turkish means "broken castle". Inhabitation began in the 16th century when Turkish tribes came from the east and settled in

Geography

Kırıkkale was recently declared a state in the

region of Turkey which is near

translating to Red River. The river is used to produce rice for the Turkish economy. The natural vegetation is

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

type, and vineyards are found in abundance.

Economy

Climate

Kırıkkale has a

cold semi-arid 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-ar ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

: ''BSk'') or a

continental climate Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature (warm summers and cold winters). They tend to occur in the middle latitudes (40 to 55 north), within large landmasses where prevailing winds blow overland bringing som ...

( Trewartha: ''Dc''). Winters are cold and moderately snowy, whereas summers are hot and dry. Rainfall is most common during spring and autumn.

Notes

References

External links

District governor's official website

District municipality's official website

Kirikkale University official website

Kirikkale haberleri
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirikkale Cities in Turkey Districts of Kırıkkale Province