I landed in Ankara on a Friday evening and left on Sunday morning. That is not much time, but friends were getting married, so I fit in what I could around the wedding. Luckily I have a great local guide that is supported by some amazing friends to help guide me around.
Friday night
The first stop of the weekend was dinner at Bayram Usta Yaprak Kebab with friends. The food was amazing and I would definitely recommend it. I wish I had taken a photo, but I was tired and more focused on the conversation.
Afterwards I went to the Cumhurbaşkanlığı Millet Kütüphanesi, the Nation’s Library of the Presidency, which sits inside the presidential complex. It opened in February 2020 and covers about 125,000 square meters, which makes it the largest library in Turkey. The interior mixes Seljuk and Ottoman motifs with contemporary design, and white marble runs through much of it. The library is open around the clock 24/7, and the collection runs to millions of printed works.
The central hall is the Cihannüma Hall, named after the World Atlas, and it is the heart of the building. The reading room rises under a dome roughly 32 meters high and 27 meters wide, with Quranic verses about reading and writing inscribed on it. Sixteen columns stand in the hall, said to stand for the sixteen great Turkic empires. It seats 224 readers and holds about 200,000 books on its shelves. The building itself is impressive and also silencing when you enter the central hall due to its size, amount of books and also the amount of reading/studying people.
We finished the evening with dessert at Şirali Kebap at Tepe Prime Avenue. We shared the simit katmer, a ring-shaped pastry that is hand-rolled, filled with clotted cream and pistachios, and baked with clarified butter. It comes with ground pistachios on top and a side of Turkish ice cream. Next to it was a bowl of Hamsiköy sütlacı, a rice pudding. Again amazing food but didn’t take any photos just enjoyed and definitely ate a bit too much.
Saturday breakfast
Breakfast was a delicious Turkish one with friends at Big Chefs in Atakule. We ordered the shared breakfast (for 2 people) as well as a croque Madame but even with 5 we just about finished it. Afterwards we went for a short stroll in the Botanical Park right next to the Atakule shopping center were we had breakfast.
Anıtkabir
Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first president of the Turkish Republic, was the main thing I wanted to see. The architects Emin Onat and Orhan Arda won the design competition in 1941 and 1942, and building ran from 1944 to 1953. Atatürk died in 1938, so he was moved here fifteen years later, on 10 November 1953.
You walk up the Road of Lions, a wide avenue of 262 meters lined with 24 seated lion statues, twelve on each side, in the Hittite style. Behind them runs a long wall of cypress trees, part of the Peace Park around the monument. At the top you reach the ceremonial square, which is laid out along one straight axis. Colonnades and towers with pyramid roofs frame the sides, and the mausoleum stands in the middle of the far side, 42 steps above the square. The square is 129 by 84 meters and built for 15,000 people, and its travertine paving carries 373 patterns taken from traditional rugs and kilims.
The colours change under the colonnade. Outside, the stone is honey-coloured. Inside there are mosaics and painted ceilings in red, blue and real gold. I pointed the camera straight up at the coffered ceiling, where the beams cut into the sky.
Honor guards were everywhere. Soldiers in army, navy and air force uniforms marched along the avenue and changed places at several spots, from the foot of the hill up to the front of the mausoleum during the changing of the guard.
Erimtan Museum and Ankara Castle
After Anıtkabir we drove to the old part of town. At the Erimtan Museum the details stood out from the architecture of a new structure built within an old facade as well as the detailed collection of old coins and jewellery, and at Ankara Castle the views were a great way to see how rolling the landscape of Ankara is.
The wedding
The day ended at the wedding of our friends. So no photos of this, which I think is a good thing 😂
Reflections
Thirty-six hours means picking. I want to say I picked food with friends, one big monument and a few smaller stops but my friends came with the ideas and I just enjoyed.
