When Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey and one of the great figures of the 20th century, died on 10 November 1938 he was mourned by the entire country.

Since the construction of a monumental tomb appropriate to the memory of this great man was going to take years, he was first buried at the Ethnographic Museum in Ankara.

Selecting a site for the mausoleum was entrusted to a preliminary committee established on 6 December 1938. They proposed eight alternative sites in the capital, including the district of Çankaya of which Atatürk had been so fond, and this was the location favoured by most people. However, the committee set up by parliament to make the final decision chose Rasattepe, a hill then empty apart from a meteorological station, on the advice of Mithat Aydın, member of parliament for Trabzon and an engineer. Rasattepe was visible from as far away as Dikmen and Etlik on the outskirts of the city.

Now that the location had been decided upon, a further committee was set up to organise selection of the design, and on 31 October 1941 an international competition was announced, specifying that the designs should symbolise the achievements and personality of Atatürk and through him the Turkish nation. Altogether 49 designs were submitted over the next year, and evaluated by a German professor Johannes Kruger, an Italian professor Arnoldo Foschini, and Turkish architects Professor Emin Onat and Associate Professor Dr Orhan Arda. Three designs were selected from among the entries, but the final choice among the three was made by the government. They chose the joint project submitted by Emin Onat and Orhan Arda.The travertine rock, which was to be the main building material, was brought from Haymana, Mahköy and Papazderesi in Ankara, Eskipazar in Çankırı, and Pınarbaşı in Kayseri, and marble from Afyon, Çanakkale, Bilecik, Adana and Hatay.

After construction was well under way a second competition was organised for the statues, reliefs, and inscriptions, which were to illustrate the War of Independence and Atatürk’s reforms.The mausoleum was completed on 9 November 1953, and on 10 November 1953, just 15 years after his death, Atatürk’s body was moved from the Ethnographic Museum to the mausoleum.

Visitors approach this imposing building along a road bright with flowers through a tree filled park. As they climb the broad flight of 26 steps, groups of statues by Hüseyin Özkan come into sight in front of the towers of Freedom (Hürriyet) and Independence (İstiklâl).Behind the towers and statues stretches the 262 m long Lion Road, which is paved with travertine and lined by statues of lions in the style of the Hittites, founders of the oldest state in Anatolia. There are six pairs of lions on each side of the road, making 24 in all. Made by sculptor Hüseyin Özkan, they symbolise serenity, power and protectiveness.

The road leads into an open square measuring 80 by 130 metres which can accommodate forty thousand people on ceremonial occasions. Flights of steps at both left and right lead up to the great hall (Hall of Honour) of the mausoleum.The great Hall of Honour, with its huge 20 metre high columns (8 each at the front and back, and 14 each along the sides), is reached by a flight of 42 steps 44 metres in length. In the centre of the steps is an inscription bearing Atatürk’s famous words, ‘Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation’. Atatürk lies in a grave dug in the earth beneath the green and gold mosaic floor of the octagonal room under the great hall. Around the grave are jars containing soil from each of Turkey’s provinces.

Official ceremonies are held in the great hall, where there is a symbolic marble sarcophagus, in front of which those attending the ceremonies stand in silence as a gesture of respect. The sarcophagus is made of a single block of red, black and white marble weighing 32 tons quarried in Gümüşhane in northeastern Turkey. Behind the sarcophagus is an enormous window admitting light which falls directly on the sarcophagus, so rendering it the focal point of attention as you enter. Ankara Castle is visible from the window. The depressed vaults over the area containing the sarcophagus are ornamented with a design of kilim motifs worked in gilded mosaic.

The polychrome mosaics in the side galleries and on the floor of the Hall of Honour were designed by Nezih Eldem and inspired by his studies of 15th and 16th century carpets and kilims. On the ceilings of the colonnades and between the towers are frescos by Tarık Levendoğlu. On the left hand side of the exterior wall is an inscription of Atatürk’s Address to Turkey’s Youth, and on the right are inscribed extracts from his Tenth Year Speech ending with the words ‘Happy is he who calls himself a Turk’. These inscriptions are the work of Emin Barın. In commemoration of the centenary of Atatürk’s birth in 1981, his Message to the Turkish Army was inscribed on the wall to the right of the entrance, and speeches made by İsmet İnönü upon Atatürk’s death can be seen on the opposite wall.

Upon leaving the great hall of the mausoleum, you see a 33.5 m high steel flag pole sent by a Turkish citizen living in the United States, and the mausoleum’s imposing towers. These eight towers are named after concepts and events relating to Turkey’s struggle for independence and establishment of the Turkish Republic: the Mehmetçik (‘Little Mehmet’, Turkish private soldiers), Müdafaa-i Hukuk (Legitimate Defence), Zafer (Victory), Barış (Peace), 23 Nisan (23 April 1920, when the Turkish parliament in Ankara opened for the first time), Misak-ı Milli (the National Pact of 1920), İnkilap (Reform) and Cumhuriyet (Republic).

The ceremonial square is surrounded by colonnades, behind which is the museum where many of Atatürk’s personal possessions are displayed, an exhibition gallery and offices.Atatürk’s Mausoleum is a graceful, clear-lined example of Turkish 1940s and 1950s architecture, characterised by a departure from foreign architectural movements. In this modern building Turkish architects and sculptors drew for inspiration on Turkey’s past cultures to create a building befitting the last resting place of the founder of modern Turkey, and which transforms the grief felt at his loss into an intense love tangible to all who visit the mausoleum.

* By Şengül Aydıngün
* Şengül Aydıngün is an art historian.