Mai in front of Ataturk's tomb

Today I’m in Ankara and is my final day in Turkey. There are 2 points of interest I’d like to visit before I leave – The Mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (Modern Turkey Great Leader) and Hittite Museum (Museum of Anatolian Civilisations).

Anit Kabir's square

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk led the war in Gallipoli against the ANZACs. He was the first president of Turkey Republic and is buried here.

The Mausoleum acts as a monument and memorial. It was built by Professor Emin Onat and Associate Professor Orhan Arda as the winning prize to design the Mausoleum. It was completedin 1953. The second president of Turkey Ismet Inonu is also buried here. The building looks like greek style architecture.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's Tomb

A guard in the entrance of the tomb

Anit Kabir - The Mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

Ismet Inonu (Second Turkey Republic President) Tomb

There are plenty of things to do around here including a walk around the Peace Garden which hosts 50,000 plants donated by 25 countries. The Peace Garden was built in honor of Ataturk’s famous expression of Peace at home, Peace in the world.

Peace Park in honor of Ataturk's famous expression of "Peace at Home, Peace in the World"

The locals

As I was taking photos of myself, I patiently waited for the locals to finish taking their snap. The longer I waited, the more they jumped off the queue. I decided instead to take with them and then later crop the final photos.

However no matter what I did the locals would just get closer to me no matter what. A girl came up to me and asked me whether she can take a picture with me. After letting the girl taking a picture with me, her whole family came one by one and started standing next to me taking turns to take a picture.

What was going on? Was my blog that famous? Later I found out that it wasn’t It seemed like they wanted the photo with me because of my asian appearance. Now I know how my caucasian friend felt when she went to china ! haha

I had to politely asked the locals to let me take a picture without them

Marching

Around Ceremonial Plaza

Related posts:

1. Turkey – House of Virgin Mary (Kusadasi)
2. Turkey – Istanbul (Bosphorus Cruise)
3. Turkey – Istanbul (Hagia Sophia)
4. Turkey – Charisma Hotel (Kusadasi)
5. Turkey Trip – a whole summary (details to come..)