Ataturk’s Mausoleum Anitkabir: Ankara, Turkey
August 19, 2010 by Anil P.
Filed under Pictures and Video
Anitkabir is Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s final resting place. The site itself is massive, with a 260 meter path lined with lion statues based on Hittite art and a ceremonial plaza that can accommodate more than 10,000 people. Inside Anitkabir you can see Ataturk’s symbolic tomb (the actual tomb is below on a lower level not open to the public). Before Anitkabir was completed, Ataturk was buried in the courtyard of Ankara’s Ethnographic Museum where you’ll find this commemorative marble memorial.
Admission to Anitkabir is free but you’ll want to avoid Turkish national holidays since the crowds can be overwhelming. In addition to the tomb inside the Hall Of Honor, you can watch a changing of the guard each hour in the ceremonial plaza. I’ve visited Anitkabir many times since I was a child and have enjoyed the recent addition of a museum which I highly recommend. Ataturk’s words along the hallways as you exit are especially insightful.
You can browse through my pictures from Anitkabir and Ankara and afterward find out why Ataturk’s image is everywhere in Turkey.
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Just read up about Ataturk in your previous post. Looking at the people next to it, the mausoleum looks huge and the reliefs and carvings look very cool. Can’t wait to visit Turkey someday!
It’s like its own little city with many intricate carvings and sculptures interspersed throughout. A nice stop in Ankara for your future trip
Amazing! Every time I read your blog I discover an attraction or destination I’d never heard of. Feeling like I need to remedy this situation soon and take an extended trip overseas from the US
Happy to share Shannon and hope you get your wish answered with a trip soon!
Very cool!
It’s so big, on normal days it’s like you have the place to yourself.
A fitting monument to a great, insightful and forethinking man.
Indeed, Anitkabir is a very impressive site.
These posts are swaying me towards visiting Turkey in the near future!
A wonderful places to visit and the weather between September-November in most of the country is ideal
I missed this on my first trip to Turkey…
Did you make it to Ankara by any chance? Most people never stop by there and was thinking of a post about it for tomorrow…