In Erzurum, students from Atatürk University are explaining to art lovers the prominent characters and objects of Turkish mythology that they have carved into ice at the Ata Ice Museum, with the aim of keeping them from being forgotten. Established in cooperation with the Northeast Anatolia Development Agency and illuminated with lighting systems, the Ata Ice Museum hosts ice artworks created by students from the Institute of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Fine Arts' Sculpture Department, focusing on Turkish mythology and culture. In the museum, where thermometers read minus five degrees Celsius year-round, the works—shaped using heated irons—aim to preserve Anatolian and Central Asian culture. The students created ice sculptures of Ayaz Ata, one of the key mythological figures of the Turks, along with a horse's head and various Turkish symbols, and also combined ice with traditional objects such as a wool-spinning tool and rubber shoes.
