A very important historical and cultural complex in Ankara, the capital of Turkey - mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal, the founder and first president of the Turkish Republic. Another name of the mausoleum is Anıtkabir, which means in Turkish "mausoleum, tomb".
For the great contribution to the creation of modern Turkey and the development of the national Turkish national consciousness, Kemal is popularly known as Atatürk, meaning "father of the Turks". During his fifteen-year reign, the Turkish people practically reached Western standards of living and made great strides forward. Ataturk built schools in every town and city, changed the Arabic alphabet in the Turkish language to the Latin alphabet, more accessible and familiar to most other peoples. Mustafa separated religion from state relations and began to reform Turkish laws, adjusting them to modern international standards. During his during his rule, women gained equal rights with men, a modern economic system was established and the existence of family names was officially recognised. Mustafa Kemal served his people wholeheartedly and achieved a the revival of the nation, for which he was universally respected and even honoured with the erection of a mausoleum. Ataturk died on 10 November 1938, having lived for more than 56 years. The solemn ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the mausoleum took place six years later, in October 1944, and the construction of the complex was completed in 1953.
Before construction began, a design competition was announced, in which 27 foreign and 20 Turkish architects took part. The winners of the competition Turkish architects Emin Halid Onaton and Ahmed Orhan Arda were the winners of the competition. During During construction, their project underwent minor changes due to financial constraints. Two floors were envisaged in the project, but only one floor was built, fortunately this didn't affect the grandeur of the building. The total area of the complex is 750 thousand square metres. Here includes the mausoleum itself, a park, a museum and other buildings.
On the site of the mausoleum was previously located observation station, and at the top of the hill were burials that belonged to the ancient state of Frigga, founded in the early 12th century. When the decision to build the mausoleum was made, the area had to be cleared of burials and archaeological excavations had to be organised. These excavations gave the Museum of Anatolian Museum, which now houses everyday objects of the Frigga inhabitants, with a large number of invaluable historical finds.
The majestic mausoleum complex is built in the style of ancient Anatolian and Hittite eras, it combines both ancient and modern architectural features. The decoration of most of the interior rooms is made of marble and tuff, which were brought from different parts of Turkey. The mausoleum's columns and lion sculptures lion sculptures were finished with white lime tuff from the Pınarbaşı county of the Kayseri region. The memorial slab on the sides of the mausoleum was lined with white marble from the Afyon region. For the decoration of the ceremonial square, red and black travertine was red and black travertine from the Kayseri region, more specifically from the village of Boğazköprü. Yellow travertine was brought from Eskipazar village in Çankırı region.
The design of the Ataturk Mausoleum complex consists of three parts: the central alley with lions, the ceremonial square and the mausoleum itself. In the building of the mausoleum building contains ten symmetrically arranged towers, each of them symbolises the most important ideas of Mustafa Kemal that influenced the development of the Turkish state. On the roofs of the towers are bronze Turkish spears - in ancient times such spears were placed on the tops of the tents. Ataturk's sayings are inscribed on the inner walls on the inner walls of the towers. In the very centre of the ceremonial room there is orator's podium decorated with quotations from Ataturk's writings. The body of the father of of the Turks is in the lower part of the mausoleum, the tomb, under a symbolic memorial slab in the hall of honour. In special vessels placed round the the tomb, contain earth brought from different regions of the country.
The Ataturk Museum, which contains his library and personal belongings, is located near the Mausoleum. You can view the cars Mustafa Kemal drove, can be seen in the square in front of the museum.
The building of the mausoleum overlooks the delightful Barys Park, where have been brought tree saplings from all Turkey's regions and various countries around the world, such as Greece, Yugoslavia, Portugal, Afghanistan, Norway, USA, Egypt, Cyprus, Canada, Japan, Italy, Germany, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Belgium, France, Denmark, Finland, UK, China, India, Iraq, Israel. The number of trees that grow in this park now reaches 48,500,000, among them more than a hundred of different plant species.
Millions of visitors visit the complex every year and every year the number of them is growing. Ankara boasts many interesting historical monuments, but among modern buildings, the Ataturk Mausoleum is one of the most important.
