Museum of Anatolian Civilizations

Ankara’s premier attraction, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations is a must-see for anyone interested in Turkey’s ancient past. It is home to the best artifacts discovered in over 46 excavations throughout the country. The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations is housed in a beautifully restored 15th-century covered market. The 10-domed central marketplace houses relief and statuary, while the surrounding exhibit hall displays are divided into the earlier Anatolian civilizations: Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Assyrian, Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian, and Lydia.

The downstairs sections exhibit classical Greek and Roman artifacts, and displays on Ankara’s history. The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations will reveal to you the nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle through stone and bone tools; the development weapons with the introduction of copperworking, and the refinement of pottery and painted decoration; various bronze artifacts; different baked-clay tablets from an Assyrian trade colony; striking Hittite figures of bulls and stags; incredible inlaid wooden furniture, ivory statues and seals. If you ever get go Ankara and have some time to spend, then definitely visit the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations!