Ankara Cartography Museum

The Mapmaking Museum is an interesting place where you can see old maps showing different parts of the world and our own country, along with the instruments used to create them. Maps are drawings that indicate where a region is located, its boundaries, and its key points. Have you ever looked at maps and become curious about places you did not know? This museum helps you understand how mapmaking has changed from the past to the present and how important it has been.

Ankara Mapmaking Museum (Culture Portal)

Time Travel

The Mapmaking Museum was established in Ankara on 2 May 1971, more than fifty years ago. When it was first founded, it occupied a smaller space, but over time it grew richer with newly collected maps and mapmaking instruments. In 1994, it moved to the building where it currently operates. Today, the museum is part of the General Command of Mapping (General Directorate of Mapping), which is under the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Türkiye.

Ankara Mapmaking Museum (Culture Portal)

What Is Exhibited in the Museum?

The museum consists of five main sections that tell the history of mapmaking. Each section displays unique and significant artifacts.

Historical Relief Maps

Relief maps are maps that show mountains, hills, and elevations in three dimensions. In the years 1880–1890, during a much earlier era, students and teachers at the Military School handcrafted these maps using materials such as sea sand, resin, and wood for their cartography lessons. These maps, among the earliest examples of relief maps in the world, depict certain cities and islands from the Ottoman Empire period.

Historical Paper Maps

In this section, you can see a wide variety of maps produced from the 19th century to the present. These maps were created for different purposes and using various methods. Among the most valuable items on display is the Sakarya Map, which was completed in just twenty days during the War of Independence and played a crucial role in its victory. Also exhibited here is the Eskişehir Map, produced in 1896 and regarded as one of the earliest examples of modern Turkish cartography.

Ankara Mapmaking Museum (Culture Portal)

Instruments Section

Special instruments are used to make maps. This section displays geodetic, photogrammetric, and cartographic tools and devices used in mapmaking from 1885 to the present. For example, a set of 114 pieces of compasses and watercolor tools used for map drawing, donated to the museum by Prince Yusuf İzzettin Efendi, son of Sultan Abdülaziz, can be seen here.

Art Gallery

The Mapmaking Museum does not display only maps! A section of the museum is dedicated to an art gallery. Here, in addition to paintings by military artists, examples of works by artists who participated in the “Country Tours” initiated at the request of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1938 are exhibited. During these tours, artists traveled to various parts of Anatolia and depicted what they saw.

Major General Mehmet Şevki Ölçer Section

This special corner is dedicated to the memory of Major General Mehmet Şevki Ölçer, recognized as the founder of the General Command of Mapping. Here, his military academy diplomas, personal instruments, and some of his belongings are displayed.