Attractions For Historical Tourism In Turkey
The region of Western Anatolia includes the Ankara, Konya and Karaman provinces. As these provinces are situated in the middle of Turkey, there is no tourism for “sun sea sand” tourists. However, these provinces provide attractions for historical tourism.
Ataturk mausoleum was build for Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic in 1944 and completed in 1953. It is situated in Çankaya because Kemal Ataturk wished he would be buried there. As to show respect and their love towards Kemal, the Turkish people fulfilled his wish. It consists of 4 sections. At the moment of stepping inside, tourists can see 24 lion sculptures on both sides of the road which represent both 24 Oghuz Tribes and power. An interesting sight is that the lion have their heads bent around the tombs.
Ankara castle (sometimes referred as Citadel) is in Altindag, located on a hill right above Ulus which is the oldest district in Ankara. The exact date of the construction is unknown but scientists have discusses that the castle has been around when Seljuq Turks captured it in 1073. It has been renovated repeatedly over the years. The castle has an outer and inner section. The outer part consists of 42 towers that protected the old Ankara. As a visitor enters through the main gate, there will be different historic buildings. Some of them have been renovated into shops and cafes while other are not in a good condition.
Çatalhöyük is one of the most interesting archaeological sites in the world. Excavations have been made since the 1960s and it is filled with Neolithic (New Age Stones) buildings which can be dated 9000 years ago. There are only 2 mounds that can be visited: the smaller and more recent of the west site and the bigger and older of the east site.
Mevlana museum was built by Sultan Suleiman, the magnificent in 16th century. It covers 18000m2 area and the mausoleum called Kubbe-i Hadra (Green Dome in English) is positioned on 4 special pillars. The main building of the museum is the location of the tombs of Mevlana, his father and other notables. Mevlana museum is one of the most visited museums in Turkey. It plays a crucial part in Konya’s tourism as almost every tourist will visit the museum.
Manaza Caves are located 40 km from Karaman. The date when they have been carved is unknown; however, it is said that they were built during the Byzantine empire in 6th-7th century. It is a five-storey mass dwelling carved into a high rock mass by a human hand. While it has been damaged by natural causes and there is no significant entrance. While some regions can still be visited, the southern façade has been demolished due to natural events. As all these locations have a cultural, religious or historical background, the future business opportunities would be to focus on historical tourism. A big hotel would be nice but most of the tourists who would visit these locations would be middle class tourists which do not want to spend a large amount of money for all these locations. An opportunity is to take advantage of these attractions which some of them are not really popular for the foreign tourists. More advertising about them towards historical tourists would increase the amount of tourists in Western Anatolia. Packages can also be provided for tourists who are willing to visit these places as all of them have small things in common which do not differentiate them from each other a lot.
