Daily Ankara City Tour from Kirikkale – Anitkabir & Anatolian Museum

Ankara Day Trip from Kirikkale: Museums, Castle and Anitkabir

This daily Ankara city tour from Kirikkale brings you to the Turkish capital, about an hour and a half away, for a guided day that spans ten thousand years of Anatolian history – from Stone Age finds and Hittite reliefs to the monumental resting place of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Transfers from and back to your hotel in Kirikkale are arranged, so the full day tour is simply about seeing and learning.

• Museum of Anatolian Civilizations – award-winning collection from the Palaeolithic era onwards
• Ankara Castle – hilltop citadel with old Ottoman houses and a small local market
• Temple of Augustus – Roman temple of Ancyra with its famous inscriptions
• Haci Bayram Mosque – historic mosque standing beside the temple
• Anitkabir – the Mausoleum of Ataturk, its Lion Road, Hall of Honour and museum
• Kizilay – a closing walk through the modern centre of the capital

Founded in 1921 and housed since 1968 in a restored Ottoman covered market and caravanserai, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations traces human life in Anatolia from the Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages through the Chalcolithic period to the great Hittite, Phrygian and Urartian kingdoms. Above the old town rises Ankara Castle, whose origins are thought to reach back to the late Hittite period and which was later used by Romans, Seljuks and Ottomans. The Temple of Augustus, built by the Romans between 25 and 20 BC and later converted into a basilica, preserves one of the best-known inscriptions of the ancient world, and the Haci Bayram Mosque stands right beside it.

In the afternoon this daily excursion continues to Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Ataturk, who led the War of Independence and founded the secular Turkish Republic. Its ceremonial square, symbolic towers and changing of the guard leave a strong impression. There is free time for lunch, and the physical level is relaxed, making this Ankara day trip suitable for most travellers.