Ankara, Turkey (September 2023)

After Istanbul, we headed out to Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was a long drive for 6 and a half hours with a couple of stops.

Ankara was declared Turkey's capital by the founding president Ataturk in 1923 because Istanbul was located far too west. Now, Ankara is located at the center of Anatolia. Ankara also is a big city with a population of 5.6 million inhabitants.

In Ankara, we first visited the Mausoleum of the Founding Father of the Turkish Republic, Mustaf Kemal Ataturk. When he was a general, he defeated the joint troops of the British and ANZAC Army at Gallipoli. In this batter, there were many casualties. 100K were dead on the Turkish side and 65K on the British/ANZAC side. Nonetheless, Turkey won the battle. It is said that Ataturk reformed the country many ways, including: 1) he created the Turkish alphabet, 2) he removed Califate, 3) and made a Turkish Republic in 1923, thus no more sultans. 4) he chose the secularism to the Islam. Friday is not a holiday but the Friday noon prayer is still mandatory in Islam. 5) he established equal rights for women in 1934, and 6) he created industries in 10 years. That is a lot of achievements. In my opinion, he was the equivalent of King Sejong, Admiral Yi, and President Park combine. Wow!!! No wonder he is revered.

We also visited the Hittites Museum or Anatolian Civilization Museum. We could see the historical progress of the Anatolian civilization from the Hittites age. The stone age sculptures were quite impressive.

We had a dinner at the roof top restaurant with a panoramic view of the city. Also, the foods were delicious.

The following day, we left Ankara and head to Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. This empire was started 1770 BC to fight against the Egypt Ramses II and Iran. This site became a UN heritage site in 1986. Active excavation is still under way, and they have restored part of the citadel, part of Lower City, Temple, Lion Gate, Sphinx Gate, Tunnel or Postern, King's Gate (War God's Gate) etc. The architecture of 3700 years ago was beyond our imagination. It was located at a strategic location overlooking the lower areas in all directions., but it is believed that the empire abandoned the capital in 1200 BC.

It is quite a challenge to guess what happened long time ago, but what we saw was remarkable. - Jeffrey