Aksaray Province (Turkish:Aksaray ili) is aprovince in centralTurkey. Its adjacent provinces areKonya along the west and south,Ankara to the northwest,Niğde to the southeast,Nevşehir to the east, andKırşehir to the north. Its area is 7,659 km2,[2] and its population is 439.474 (2022).[3] The provincial capital is the city ofAksaray.
Aksaray is one of the four provinces inCappadocia, along with Nevşehir, Niğde, andKayseri. Also, the 3,000-metre (9,843 ft) volcanoMount Hasan stands between Aksaray andNiğde. Summers are hot and dry on the plain, but the area is green and covered in flowers in springtime, when water streams off the mountainside. The 2,400 m2 salt lake (0.59 acres),Tuz Gölü, lies within the boundaries of Aksaray, a large swamp area with a maximum depth of 1 metre (3 ft 3 in).
In antiquity the area was namedArchelais Garsaura, which was mutated toTaksara during theSeljuk Turkish era, and then toAksaray.Aksaray means "White Palace" inTurkish.
AksarayKilim, 18th century. The kilim was probably made by a group of settledHotamis Turkmen in the Aksaray region. It may have been used for a funeral, and was later donated to the local mosque.
The plains of centralAnatolia have been settled for 8,000 years, and the area around Aksaray bears monuments to a string of civilisations that have settled on the plain in that time. The mound ofAşıklı Höyük in the town of Kızılkaya indicates a settlement dating back to 5,000BC (and also a skull of a woman who had apparently been trepanned, the earliest known record of brain surgery).
Later theSilk Road came through here so caravanserai and then larger and larger settlements were built to supply and shelter travellers and traders. The city and surroundings of Aksaray thrived in theRoman,Byzantine and theTurkish periods.
Ekecik Mountain - View from the northern slope.
Today Aksaray is a rural, agricultural province, its people religious and conservative.[citation needed] Since the 1950s, many have moved to Europe as migrant workers. The population of Aksaray has long included a higher proportion ofKurdish people than most central Anatolian provinces. Many were resettled here fromTunceli,Diyarbakir,Adiyaman. and other eastern cities following theSheikh Said rebellion in the 1920s.[6]
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