Our province that is located in the north of Central Anatolia, on the transition zone between Central Anatolia and the Western Black Sea, having an area of 7490 km2, shares borders with Ankara and Kırıkkale in the south, Bolu in the west, Kastamonu and Karabük in the north, and Çorum in the east.
Apart from hosting nature sports such as summer and winter skiing, camping, caravan, pedestrian and horse trekking, climbing, paragliding, cycling, photography and hunting, many alternative types of tourism, Cankiri; with its mountains covered in snow half of the year, which have been a subject for poems, forests, plateaus, rich thermal springs, offers interesting features with its Salt Cave and Massive Oak Tree that amaze people, centuries-long cultural values, loving people and traditional hospitality, especially for those who want to get away from the oppressive city life and be in touch with nature.
Due to the limited number of scientific excavations and surface surveys, the informations of Cankiri's written periods are rather limited. However, the investigations reveal that the history of humanity in Cankiri began during the Middle Paleolithic period and has continued uninterrupted since the Chalcolithic Period. In the Old Bronze Age (3000-2000 BC), Hattians, who were the indigenous peoples of Anatolia and who were ruled as city principals (principality), continued to dominate the region. At the beginning of the 17th Century BC, the region came under the domination of the Hittite after Hittites entered the Anatolia.
In Cankiri, a large number of mounds dated to the Hittite period have been identified. Inandiktepe Hound, which is one of them and which was excavated, clearly shows the significance of the works of the Early Hittite Period, the sacred "Hittite Vase", cuneiform script "Donation Document" and the Hittite settlements of Cankiri. All the steps of the Holy Marriage ceremony are depicted in a certain ascending order on the inandik vase, in which the embossed motifs are placed on the fryers. It is one of the rare examples representing the embossed and illustrated vase art of the Old Hittite Period.
After the fall of the Hittite Empire in the wake of the migration of the sea tribes and its withdrawal to Southeastern Anatolia, the region remained under the rule of Phrygia, Cimmer, Lydia, Persia, Paphlagonia Pontus, Roman and Byzantine respectively, and followed by the Seljuk and Ottoman.
The name of Cankiri, which was Gangra during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, was also used as Germanicopolis during the Roman period. The region, which was called Kengari and Kengiri in the Ottoman period, was named Çankırı as a province during the Republican period.