Ankara (population 5.7 million — the capital of Turkey since 1923 when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk moved the capital from Istanbul to the Anatolian plateau city of Angora (the ancient name — the origin of Angora wool, the long-haired wool from the Angora goat (now "Mohair" from the Angora goat, "Angora" from the Angora rabbit) that was the primary export of the region for centuries) to consolidate the new Republic's identity separate from the Ottoman imperial capital) is one of the most misunderstood capitals in Europe and the Middle East: routinely dismissed by travellers and even by Turks themselves as "boring" in comparison with Istanbul, Ankara is in fact a city of exceptional museums (the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations — the finest collection of prehistoric, Hittite, Phrygian and early Anatolian artifacts in the world, housed in a 15th-century Ottoman bedesten), extraordinary ancient history (the Hittite Empire (the Bronze Age superpower that fought Egypt to a standstill at the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE, the earliest battle recorded in detail in military history, and signed the world's earliest known peace treaty (the Treaty of Kadesh)), the Phrygian Kingdom (the kingdom of the legendary King Midas (who turned everything to gold) whose capital was at Gordion 80km west of Ankara), the Galatian Kingdom (the Celtic tribe (the Galatoi — the Galatians who appear in Paul's letter to the Galatians in the New Testament) who settled central Anatolia in the 3rd century BCE and maintained their Celtic language and customs for 500 years in Asia Minor) and the Roman temple of Augustus (the only Temple of Augustus surviving from the Roman Empire, built in the 1st century BCE and containing the "Monumentum Ancyranum" — the complete text of Res Gestae Divi Augusti, the autobiography of Emperor Augustus, carved on the temple walls: the most important Latin inscription in the world outside Rome) make Ankara an essential destination for anyone interested in ancient and medieval history.
Anıtkabir (Anıt-Kabir — "Memorial Tomb" — the monumental mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), the founder and first president of the Turkish Republic: completed 1953 on the Rasattepe hill (1,071m above sea level — the highest point in central Ankara): the 750m-long processional Yüriüş Yolu ("Way of Lions" — lined with 24 pairs of Hittite-style stone lions representing the pre-Islamic Anatolian heritage that Atatürk invoked in his construction of a secular Turkish identity), the rectangular colonnaded Honour Hall with the 40-tonne sarcophagus of Atatürk (containing his remains, moved from Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul in 1953), the Atatürk and War of Independence Museum (the 15,000-artifact collection documenting the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923) and Atatürk's personal effects — his suits, his reading glasses, his 4,000-volume personal library). The most visited site in Turkey (approximately 10 million visitors per year — more than any single site in Istanbul).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideUlus (the "Nation" district — the old center of Ankara on and around the Ankara Citadel hill): the Ankara Citadel (the Hisar — the Byzantine fortification (originally Roman, expanded by the Byzantine emperor Michael II in 837 CE) on the 947m rock outcropping above Ulus: the inner citadel (İç Kale) with the oldest surviving residential buildings in Ankara (the 19th-century timber-frame houses of the traditional Ankara neighborhood — the most atmospheric street in Ankara is the Dönerlerin Yokuşu, the alley of the kebap makers inside the citadel walls)), the Column of Julian (the 15m Roman marble column erected in Ankara in 362 CE to mark the visit of the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate (the last pagan emperor of Rome, who attempted to reverse Constantine's Christianization of the empire)), and the Roman Baths (the 3rd-century CE Roman imperial baths — the most complete surviving Roman bath complex in Anatolia).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideTemple of Augustus and Rome (the "Augusteum" — the white marble temple built in the 1st century BCE in the provincial capital of Galatia (the Roman province whose capital was Ankara (then called Ancyra)): the most important surviving Temple of Augustus in the Roman Empire (the only one still standing): the walls of the temple contain the Res Gestae Divi Augusti ("Achievements of the Divine Augustus") — the autobiography of Emperor Augustus carved in Latin and Greek on the walls as a translation of the Rome original: the "Monumentum Ancyranum" is the most important Latin inscription in the world outside Rome: the primary source for the life and self-presentation of the first Roman Emperor. The temple was later converted to a Byzantine church and later to a mosque (the minaret stump is visible on the northwest corner).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAnkara mutfağı (Ankara cuisine — the central Anatolian food tradition: the most important specific Ankara dish is the Ankara tavası (the Ankara tray: the slow-cooked lamb, onion and tomato baked in a clay dish in the tandir (the clay underground oven), served with rice and butter), but the most accessible entry is the Ankara köftesi (the Ankara meatball — the flat oval köfte made from a mixture of lamb and beef with the specific Ankara seasoning of cumin, black pepper and dried mint, cooked on the charcoal grill and served with grilled peppers and tomatoes, yogurt and bread) and the beyran çorbası (the Ankara beyran soup — the slow-simmered lamb bone broth (simmered for 6–8 hours) with very thin rice noodles (vermicelli), garlic and white pepper: the most restorative soup in the Turkish culinary repertoire, traditionally eaten for breakfast after a late night).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAnadolu Medeniyetleri Müzesi (the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations — "the finest museum in the world for prehistoric and early historical Anatolian art," winner of the European Museum of the Year Award 1997: housed in the 15th-century Ottoman Mahmut Paşa Bedesteni (the covered marketplace, one of the oldest surviving bedesten buildings in Turkey): the chronological sequence of Anatolian civilizations: the Paleolithic (the earliest human artifacts from Anatolia, 1.6 million years ago), the Neolithic (the Çatalhöyük artifacts — the world's oldest known "city" (7500 BCE) in the Konya plain: the wall paintings, the obsidian tools, the earliest known depictions of a plan of a city and a volcano erupting), the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age (the Troy artifacts, the Alacahöyük gold and bronze objects (the ceremonial standards (the "Alacahöyük standards" — the bronze sun discs and stag figures that are the most important Bronze Age art objects from Turkey)), and the Hittite Empire (the largest collection of Hittite objects in the world (better than the Hittite Museum in Boğazkale where Hattusa was located): the sphinxes, the orthostats (the carved stone reliefs from the gates of Hittite cities), the cuneiform tablets (the Hittite administrative records and the Hittite-Akkadian dictionaries)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideGordion (the ancient capital of Phrygia — the kingdom that was the dominant power in Anatolia between the decline of the Hittites (c. 1200 BCE) and the rise of Lydia (c. 700 BCE): the city of Gordios (who tied the Gordian Knot — the knot that, according to the Oracle at Delphi, would be unraveled only by the ruler of Asia: Alexander the Great cut it with his sword in 333 BCE) and his son Midas (the legendary king associated with the Midas touch — turning everything to gold — and the ass's ears (the transformation into the braying donkey as punishment for preferring the pipes of Pan to the lyre of Apollo)). The Great Tumulus (the enormous burial mound (52m high) of a Phrygian king (possibly Midas) — inside: the intact wooden burial chamber (c. 740 BCE) with the oldest surviving wooden furniture in the world (the elaborate inlaid tables and stands on which the burial goods were placed)), now excavated and accessible through a tunnel.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSakarya Caddesi (the "Sakarya Street" — the most concentrated bar, meyhane (the Turkish tavern) and restaurant strip in Ankara: the Kızılay-Ankara district equivalent of Istanbul's Beyoğlu meyhane culture): the rakı sofrasının (the "rakı table" — the ritual of the Turkish meyhane: the large glass of clear anise spirit (Yeni Rakı — "New Rakı" — the most popular brand, 45% alcohol, the spirit that turns white when water is added: the "lion's milk" (aslan sütü) as Turks call it), served alongside a sequence of cold mezes (the meze spread: the cacık (the Turkish tzatziki — yogurt, cucumber, mint and dried mint in olive oil), the arnavut ciğeri (the "Albanian liver" — the spiced lamb liver cubes, floured and fried, served cold with red onion rings and parsley), the tarama (the fish roe spread), the patlıcan ezmesi (the roasted aubergine purée), and the warm mezes (the pastries, the fried calamari, the grilled lamb chops).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe most visited monument in Turkey: the massive 1953 neoclassical mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. The Road of Lions lined with 24 stone Hittite lions, the ceremonial courtyard of 250,000 paving stones, and the tomb chamber with its 42-tonne monolith sarcophagus. The War of Independence Museum inside is one of the finest military museums in the Middle East.
Ankara Etnografya Müzesi (the Ethnography Museum of Ankara — the white marble Ottomanate museum building (1930) designed by the architect Arif Hikmet Koyunoğlu in the "National Architectural Renaissance" style (the state architectural style of the early Turkish Republic that combined Ottoman and Seljuk motifs with a modern building program): the museum where Atatürk's body lay between his death in 1938 and the completion of the Anıtkabir in 1953 (the room where the coffin stood is preserved and displayed): the collections of Seljuk (the medieval Turkic dynasty that preceded the Ottomans in Anatolia, whose capital was at Konya) and Ottoman era folk art, textiles (the kilims and Angora wool textiles), metalwork (the copper and silver objects of the traditional Ankara crafts), wood carving and the folk costumes of the Anatolian regions.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideÇıkrıkçılar Yokuşu (the "Bobbin-maker's Slope" — the steep bazaar street between Ulus and the Ankara Citadel: the most atmospheric traditional market street in Ankara (the equivalents in Ankara of Istanbul's Grand Bazaar): the copper workshops (the Ankara coppersmith tradition — the hand-beaten copper ewers, the coffee pots, the trays and the decorative objects that are the primary craft product of central Anatolia), the Angora mohair wool shops (the Angora goat (now producing "mohair" — from the Arabic "mukhayyar": "select, choice" — the fine, lustrous long-fiber wool that was the primary export of Ankara for centuries: the Ottoman government maintained a monopoly on Angora wool trade from 1564 to 1820), the spice sellers and the dried fruit and nut shops (the Anatolian dried apricot, the walnut, the pistachio from the Gaziantep region and the İkizce hazelnut).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCerModern (the Cer Modern Ankara Contemporary Arts Center — the most important contemporary art institution in Ankara (and one of the most important in Turkey): housed in the converted 1927 locomotive repair workshops (the "Cer Atölyeleri" — the Ankara Railway Workshops) of the TCDD (Turkish State Railways): the massive industrial brick buildings (the machine shop, the boiler room and the locomotive shed) converted to exhibition halls, performance spaces and studios. The gallery program features the most important Turkish and international contemporary art exhibitions in Ankara. The Çay Bahçesi (the tea garden in the converted locomotive inspection pit) is the most atmospheric café in Ankara.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAnkara mantısı (the Ankara ravioli — the smallest and most labor-intensive of all the Turkish mantı variants: the handmade pasta squares (typically 1.5cm × 1.5cm — far smaller than the other regional mantı variants) filled with a mixture of lamb, onion and parsley (the raw filling, not pre-cooked), boiled in salted water and served with the three essential sauces: the garlic yogurt (the yoğurtlu sos), the paprika butter (the tereyağı + pul biber (Aleppo pepper flakes) heated until the butter foams), and the tomato paste sauce (the salça sos)). İskender kebab (the Bursa-origin döner kebab variant (Bursa is 250km northwest of Ankara): the döner meat (the rotating vertical spit of layered lamb and beef) sliced thin and served over pide (the flat oval Turkish bread), then covered with the specific İskender sauces: the hot tomato sauce and the hot browned butter, finished with a spoonful of yogurt).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuide