Ankara is first and foremost a city of state — ministries, embassies, monuments — but its cultural and archaeological depth rivals any city in Turkey. The Museum of Anatolian Civilisations alone is worth the trip: room after room of Hittite, Phrygian and Urartian artifacts that tell twelve thousand years of human story from the Anatolian plateau.
Layer that with the restored Ottoman lanes of Hamamönü, a dramatic hilltop castle, and a café-bar quarter on Tunalı Hilmi Caddesi, and Ankara becomes a genuinely satisfying destination in its own right.
- Region
- Central Anatolia
- Elevation
- 938 m above sea level
- Best months
- Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct
- Don't miss
- Anatolian Civilisations Museum
Anıtkabir — the mausoleum of Atatürk
No visit to Ankara is complete without Anıtkabir, the imposing marble mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic. Set on a hilltop and approached through a long ceremonial Lion Road, it is one of the most visited sites in Turkey and one of its most moving.
The attached museum traces Atatürk’s life and Turkey’s early republican history through personal effects, documents and photographs. Allow at least two hours and aim for a weekday morning to avoid peak crowds.
Museum of Anatolian Civilisations
Housed in a restored 15th-century bedesten and adjacent caravanserai, this is widely regarded as one of the finest archaeological museums in the world. Its collection spans the Palaeolithic through the Phrygian and Iron Age periods, with a particularly extraordinary Hittite gallery containing reliefs, cult statuettes and cuneiform tablets.
The building itself is worth admiring: two Ottoman market structures converted with exceptional taste to display the civilisations that once traded and built on this very plateau.
Ankara Castle and the old city
The Byzantine-era citadel rises steeply over the city, its basalt walls enclosing a neighbourhood of restored Ottoman houses, artisan workshops and rooftop restaurants with sweeping views of modern Ankara spread below.
Within the walls, the Rahmi M. Koç Museum fills an Ottoman han with vintage cars, aircraft, ships and industrial machinery. Just outside, the Ethnography Museum covers traditional Anatolian crafts and folk culture.
Hamamönü — the restored Ottoman quarter
In the shadow of the castle, Hamamönü is a pedestrian neighbourhood of restored 19th-century timber-frame houses, now occupied by antique dealers, art galleries, modest restaurants and tea houses. It is the closest Ankara comes to the atmospheric backstreet experience more associated with Istanbul.
Tunalı Hilmi and the modern city
Ankara’s contemporary cultural life concentrates on the Çankaya district, particularly Tunalı Hilmi Caddesi. Wine bars, bookshop cafés, contemporary art galleries and international restaurants fill the ground floors of 1960s apartment buildings in an atmosphere that feels more European than most Turkish cities.
Ankara in pictures
Frequently asked questions
Ankara
3Anıtkabir (the mausoleum of Atatürk), the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations, Ankara Castle and the Hamamönü Ottoman quarter are the four essential stops.
A full day covers the main highlights; two days allows a more relaxed pace and time for the castle quarter and evening in the Tunalı Hilmi bar district.
Yes — while often overlooked, Ankara has world-class museums, one of Turkey's most important historical monuments in Anıtkabir and a lively modern city life.