ANKARA 

The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, one of Turkish capital Ankara's most popular museums, hosted over 370,000 visitors in 2019.

Located on the southern side of Ankara Castle in the Atpazari area, it displays around 195,000 artifacts of Anatolian history from ancient times to 600 BC.

According to its administration, the museum, which was founded in 1921, attracted a total of 371,126 visitors in 2019 as compared to 298,424 in 2018. The facility is being run on half its capacity as restoration works are ongoing for the last two years.

From Sept. 12 to Oct. 12., the museum displayed a gold armor dating back to the 5th century, and hosted about 50,000 visitors. The Golden Man armor was unearthed 50 years ago in Kazakhstan. The costume is made from thousands of separate gold pieces decorated with motifs and is regarded as one of Turkey's national symbols.

In 1997, the museum won the European Museum of the Year Award among 68 museums competing from 21 countries.

* Writing by Gozde Bayar