Beypazarı lies 100 kilometres north-west of Ankara on the old road to İstanbul, and it has kept the role it had in the past: the social, cultural and economic centre of the country between Ayaş, Güdül, Nallıhan and Kıbrıscık.
The rulers follow Anatolia's usual course — Hittites, Phrygians, Galatians, Romans and Byzantines in the earlier ages, then the Anatolian Seljuks and the Ottomans. Under Rome the town sat on the great historic passes linking İstanbul to Ankara and to Baghdad.
Its first name was Lagania. In his book on the historical place names of Türkiye, Bilge Umar examines the word and concludes that it means the country of the rock summit.
The name changed in the 6th century AD. Lagania was then a bishopric, and after a visit by the Eastern Roman emperor Anastasios, who reigned from 491 to 518, the town was renamed Lagania-Anastasiopolis — the city of Anastasios. Not long after the Turks entered Anatolia under Alp Arslan and reached the Marmara, Beypazarı met its first Turkish raiders; under Seljuk rule its position meant it changed hands often. The Ottoman timber houses the town is known for, the old bazaar and the silverwork each have their own page below.
