Turkey Guide
North Central Anatolia
Anıt Kabir
Address: Anıt Caddesi
Opening time: Mon 1.30–5pm, Tues– Sat 9am–5pm; winter closes 4pm
Price: Free
Anıt Kabir), Atatürk's mausoleum, is a national shrine to the memory of the man who shaped modern Turkey. The main entrance to the mausoleum is reached by travelling up Anıt Caddesi from Tandoğan Meydanı (at the northwestern end of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Bulvarı), and it's this approach that reveals the place at its most impressive (though you can also enter the grounds of the mausoleum from a rear entrance on Akdeniz Caddesi). Bus #265 runs from Ulus Meydanı, dropping you at Tandoğan Meydanı, or alternatively catch an Ankaray (LRT) train to Tandoğan.
A flight of steps at the main entrance leads up to a colonnade, guarded by Hittite-style stone lions, which in turn leads to the central courtyard of the mausoleum. The entrance to the colonnade is flanked by two towers: the Independence Tower on the left and the Freedom Tower on the right. Inside the towers you'll find a scale model of the Anıt Kabir complex, a selection of before-and-after aerial shots of its construction from 1944 to 1953, and some intriguing runner-up designs that never quite made it off the page.
At the head of the central courtyard lies the mausoleum itself, a squared-off Neoclassical temple with huge bronze doors. Visitors wearing hats must remove them as they enter and soldiers stand guard to ensure that everyone evinces the appropriate degree of respect. The mausoleum interior is almost completely bare – the only decoration is some discreet mosaic work – so that all attention is focused on the plain sarcophagus. Atatürk's body was brought here in 1953 from its original resting place in what is now the Ethnographic Museum.