The Museum of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Ankara opened on 15 June 2013 through the work of teaching staff in Turkish folklore at Gazi University, with financial support from the Ankara Development Agency. The Ankara provincial directorate of culture and tourism describes it as the first museum of its kind in Türkiye.
The museum keeps a good many cultural things alive in practice, through the events it holds. Among the traditional performances it puts on are the Karagöz and Hacivat shadow play, the orta oyunu, the storytelling of the meddah, village plays and children's games.
Handicrafts are part of its programme as well, among them printing with linden blocks and marbling.
The museum also stages a range of things belonging to the culture of Ankara in particular: its tales, folk songs, stories, lullabies and folk verses, its traditional conversation gatherings, and representations of the henna night, of the tooth-cutting celebration and of the henna held for a young man leaving for military service.
The museum is at Öz Sokak off Talatpaşa Boulevard in Altındağ.
Visiting hours
- Visiting hours
- 09:00 - 17:00, closed Monday
Entry fee
- Entry fee
- Free
When to go
- Climate
- Across Ankara as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 0.4 °C in January to 23.6 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (52 mm) and lightest in August (13 mm). Long-term means for 1927-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
