Half Day Ankara City Tour from Ankara – Anitkabir & Anatolian Museum

Half Day Ankara City Tour: Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara Castle and Anitkabir

Short on time in the capital? This half day Ankara city tour condenses the three landmarks every visitor should see into a single morning, with hotel pick-up in the city centre and an English-speaking guide throughout. In around four to five hours you trace Anatolia's story from prehistoric settlements to the birth of the modern Republic, and still have the afternoon free.

• Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, with finds from the Palaeolithic Age onward
• Hittite, Phrygian and Urartian treasures displayed in their historical sequence
• Ankara Castle, its old houses and small local market
• Panoramic views over the city from the castle heights
• Anitkabir: the Hall of Honour, the Lion's Road and the museum
• The changing of the guard ceremony at the mausoleum

Established in 1921 and given its present form in 1968, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations is one of the most acclaimed archaeological museums in Turkey. Its galleries move from Palaeolithic and Neolithic finds through the Chalcolithic Age to the Hittites, Phrygians, Urartians and Late Hittites. Just uphill, Ankara Castle is believed to go back to the Hittite era and was used by the Romans, Seljuks and Ottomans; inside its walls a small quarter of historic houses and a local market survive.

The daily tour ends at Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who led the War of Independence and founded the democratic, secular Turkish Republic. Its ceremonial square, symbolic towers and museum make a fitting finale to this short daily excursion. As an Ankara day trip in miniature, the tour departs from your hotel and returns there, with entrance fees included; lunch is not part of the programme. Comfortable shoes are recommended because the castle streets are steep and cobbled. It is an efficient day tour from Ankara for business travellers and visitors with a tight schedule.