Most of us could happily have spent a week here, but half a day was all we had - so gotta make the most of it!!

What makes it so attractive is the stunning quality of the exhibits which are then beautifully lit and presented and supported with seemingly endless wall charts, descriptions and analyses in English as well as Turkish.  My only grouse is that the lighting made photography challenging as you will doubtless conclude from some of my pics!

For those unfamiliar with Turkey’s geography and history - as I was prior to booking this trip - Anatolia is broadly that part of Turkey which lies in Asia, i.e. to the east of The Bosphorus and the human history of that area goes back to about 6.000 BC.  It is telling that the  most modern exhibits date from 150 AD - the Civilisations that are covered by the Museum are Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Assyrian, Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian and Lydian periods.  There is also a collection of Roman artefacts unearthed at excavations in and around Ankara - but we did not get time to look at those!

Some of the most stunning exhibits include displays of the cuneiform tablets from HIttite Fortress  at Hattusa which are contracts, correspondence and treaties written 3,500 years ago.  Made my skin crawl.....

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