Altinda, district of Ankara, Turkey, in Ankara province. The earliest known settlement in the region can be traced back to the Hittites, an Indo-European group that ruled Central Anatolia in the second millennium BC. Although the settlement remained economically and socially unimportant for centuries, Altindag grew rapidly in the second half of the 20th century as a result of industrialization. In the early 1950s Turkey's focus on industry caused an influx of rural population to migrate to urban centers. Located close to Ankara, Altindag attracted many newcomers as a suitable housing area. The new settlements consisted mostly of basic housing units, hastily built without permission on government-owned lands. A loophole in Turkish law prevents authorities from removing houses built in a single night, giving these settlements the name gecekondu (Turkish for “built overnight”). Altindag was the first Turkish location to have this type of settlement, and the practice is now widespread. Population (1990) 422,668.
