Mausoleum of Kemal Atatürk, and the Anatolian Civilizations Museum, Ankara, Turkey

Our last destination before returning to Istanbul: Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It was a bustling modern city. We drove in from Avanos and stopped at a shopping mall, of all places, for lunch. It was easy to park a big tour bus, plus there was variety in the food court for the entire group.

The food court looked very much like one in the US, there were even Subway, McDonald's and Burger King!

I walked around twice before deciding on an adana kebab durum, a wrap that came with lentil soup and bread. It was very good and cheap (229 turkish lira or 7 dollars)

My friends decided on turkish pizza, one with mashed potatoes and the other with cheese.

After lunch, we went to visit the Anıtkabir, i.e. the Mausoleum of Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey. There were a lot of people there since it was a weekend. It was a very impressive and symbolic place.

I joined the line to go into the Museum where Atatürk's personal's items were displayed. Past that, were different sections that covered Turkish history, battles, a room with beautiful paintings of historical scenes. Further on were alcoves with exhibits related to politics, significant events, the armed forces and social reform. I spent some time at the alcove displaying Atatürk's support for women's rights and his numerous reforms such as women's rights to education and voting, and changing marriages from religious to civil. He was an enlightened leader. There were old news clippings with photos of the first women pilot, teacher, doctor, etc. I wish I had taken a photo of that alcove!

On one side of the grounds wasthe Road of Lions, a pathway with replicas of Hittite lion statutes. I did not walk to the end of the pathway to see all of the lions and other statutes; tired after walking around in the museum.

We have one more place to visit, the Anatolian Civilisations Museum. It was a museum with artifacts from ancient civilizations, from the Paleolithic period chronologically through the Neolithic, Early Bronze, Assyrian trading colonies, Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian, Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuq and Ottoman periods. Yes, there was a lot to see. After the Anıtkabir, I was suffering from information overload, and simply could not retain any more. I took a lot of photos of the information displays, although I'm sure a google search would give me details I missed. In any case below are photos of some of the exhibits I found interesting.