Atatürk Mask
Buca district, Turkey · built 2009
The Atatürk Mask (Turkish: Atatürk Maskı) is a large concrete bust of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, located in Buca district of İzmir. The sculpture was completed in 2009 at a cost of ₺4.2 million.
Buca Municipality has agreed with sculptor Harun Atalayman to have a monument dedicated to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk built. The sculpture, the construction of which started in 2006, was completed in 2009 at a cost of ₺4.2 million. In September 2010, a museum called the Independence War and 9 September Museum was established within the sculpture for a brief of time. In 2018, after being damaged by weather and climate, help was asked from trained mountain climbers with the repairs, because a crane is not able to access some locations of the monument.
The Atatürk Mask, at 42 m (138 ft) high, is the highest relief sculpture in Turkey, and the tenth highest relief sculpture in the world. It is built up over a scaffolding and not carved into the side of the mountain. To be more specific, the monument is steel structure containing a space truss system. In the lower left corner of the sculpture, Atatürk's quote "Peace at Home, Peace in the World" and his signature are embossed.
Monument data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).