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A Wander Through The Ancient East

A Wander Through The Ancient East

The archaeological museums of Istanbul are not famous. In many ways they are a forgotten footnote to the history of Turkey. And this is ridiculous. Ancient Turkey was home to Trojans, King Midas, and the Golden Fleece. Ramses II got this far north; Alexander the Great got a good deal further south and east; the Romans were firmly in control. Turkey’s archaeology is just as storied as that of Greece or Italy, yet it seems to be mostly forgotten save as day trips to Troy or Ephesus. Whilst commonsense should have told me that Istanbul would of course have an archaeological museum, it was not one that I had heard of, or had resolved to visit before my trip. But this complex in Gülhane Park, abutting on to the grounds of the Topkapi Palace is well worth a few hours of your time. As a self-professed history nerd I was well and truly in my element!

Your 10TL ticket will get you access you no less than three museums – the Çinili Pavilion, the Museum of the Ancient Orient, and the Archaeological Museum itself.

I started off with the actual Archaeological Museum, the largest of the three collections. Indeed it is a surprisingly hefty collection that is liable to cause museum fatigue. This collection was started by Osman Hamdi Bey, who forbade western archaeologists / collectors / looters from taking the nation’s cultural heritage abroad. For this he is rightly praised; what is not mentioned is the irony that many of the exhibits in the three museums actually hail from the parts of the Ottoman empire that now comprise Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Israel. Turning left inside the museum I came to just some examples of this, the museum’s star exhibits, a set of huge ornate sarcophagi that comes from Sidon in Lebanon. The Lycian Sarcophagus is carved with mythological creatures such as centaurs, griffons and sphinxes. The Alexander Sarcophagus shows battle and hunt scenes, in which Alexander the Great figures prominantly. This was not the tomb of Alexander though, but of his ally Abdalonymus, King of Sidon, who was obviously keen to associate himself with the great conqueror. The carvings are awe-inspiring, the horses and soldiers standing proud of the rest of the marble; I cannot even begin to think how the masons could have carved behind them. The weaponry (swords and spears) would have been slotted into the hands of the stone warriors, but all but one have now vanished. And as an information panel shows, traces of paint show that this would once have been painted in garish hues. A final sarcophagus from Sidon is the Sarcophagus of the Mourning Women, depicting women grieving the death of King Straton.

This leads on to further tombstones, some with pretty natty curses on them, and pediments from some of Turkey’s Hellenic temples. All the rooms are well annotated in English. Returning to the other wing there are lots of free-standing statues of gods and heroes, displayed as in an art gallery. Large-scale photographs of particular details hang from the walls. The whole thing is very pretty. The new building at the back has displays from the nearby areas of Thrace and Bithynia, and then a large area devoted to the Byzantines. Here you can see their pulpits and tombs, and learn about all the different aspects of their rule. One interesting area shows just how much history is buried under modern-day Istanbul – it is the finds thrown up by construction of a cross-town underground route. Pride of place here goes to a boat found in the ancient harbour.

Upstairs there are more rooms devoted to Turkey’s different cultures. Displays walk you through the different ages of Troy. You are introduced to the Hittites. Translated tablets from Hattusha range from historical records to curses placed on enemies and spells to correct male impotence. The last two place particular emphasis on being quite unneccessarily cruel to poor old ducks! Upstairs again, and you find more displays on the prehistories of neighbouring countries that were once under Ottoman control, from Cyprus to Palmyra. On the whole there is plenty to interest even if the mustard-brown furnishings that seem to have been lifted from a ‘60s Bond villian’s lair do get very repetitive and soul-destroying after a while.

Across from the entrance to the Archaeological Museum is the smallest of the three buildings: the Çinili Kiosk (Tiled Pavilion). This is now the Museum of Turkish Ceramics. I personally wasn’t overly interested in the development of ceramics, but some of the tiles on display are frankly beautiful. It is well worth a nose around.

Finally I visited the Museum of the Ancient Orient. Its doors are guarded by some cuddly-looking Hittite lions in black basalt dating from the 9th century BC. Inside there is are exhibits from pre-classical Turkey and the wider middle east. This includes famous regions such as Egypt, and also lesser-known ones like the Arabian peninsula – who even knew people could scratch a living down there? But the core of the museum are the civilisations from Anatolia and Mesopotamia. There are Assyrian statues and Sumerian love poems. Glazed blue and yellow tiles from the processional Ishtar Gate in Babylon were easily recognisable – I had seen these lions and mushushu dragons on display at the British Museum back in February. In amongst the Hittite relics you can see the Treaty of Kadesh, recognised as the first peace treaty in the world, signed between the Hittites and Pharoah Ramses II after the Battle of Kadesh. Though the way Ramses spins it in the images on the walls of his sun temple at Abu Simbel you would think it was a resounding Egyptian victory! A copy of this treaty now graces the UN headquarters in New York.

I have to say, I’m glad I spent a morning exploring these museums, tucked away as they are. There are some lovely exhibits here, and they are displayed and explained well. They are good for everything from a quick sprint round with children to see the stand out exhibits up to a full and scholarly exploration.

From journal Holy of Holies

Archeological Museum in Istanbul is Great

  • July 24, 2008
  • Rated 4 of 5 by NiceGinna from Evanston, Illinois
Archeological Museum in Istanbul is Great

This museum holds artifacts of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine civilizations. The Tile and Pottery Museum, which is nextdoor, is also very interesting. We spent a morning here and found it well worth the time.

Visit to Museum

  • February 14, 2006
  • Rated 4 of 5 by Suha Sendogan from Ýstanbul, Turkey
Visit to Museum

The most important part of the park was the Archaeology Museum, which was the reason we had decided to visit. The Museum: The museum has mainly four sections. The first hall displayed various bows, figures, and beautiful bronze works found in the Bythnian and Mysian regions, dated from 3.000 B.C. until the end of Byzantine period. The second hall,which displayed some objects from the Hellenistic period and the stone objects were mostly from the Roman period. The Kybele status,the Athena bust, and Apollo statue are the best remarkable parts of the room. The third hall displayed objects from the 7th century B.C. until the end of Byzantine period. Beautiful glass bowls, gold jewelery, and bronze objects are from the Roman and Byzantine period. The fourth hall contains the actual sized War-Chariot and grave which were found in 1988 during the excavations in Üçpýnar/Tümülüs, belonging the Akhamenids period. The garden of the museum has many statues, grave stones, and various tomb-steels.

From journal Archaeological Museum of Bursa

Archaeological Museum and Oriental Museum

  • July 29, 2003
  • Rated 4 of 5 by ShannonBrooke from Somerville, Massachusetts
The Archaeological museum and the Oriental museum located in Gulhane Park, near Topkapi, are a good way to spend a morning. Budget travelers will love the low entrance fees. It costs around 2.50 to see the Archaeological Museum. The artifacts here are extremely old, mosaics from Babylon and other ancient cities. You can even see the purple tombs of the Byzantine royalty.

There is a small snack bar just outside the museum, where you can eat seated amongst ancient stone monuments.

From journal Istanbul in June

Editor Pick

Archaeology Museum

  • April 14, 2002
  • Rated 4 of 5 by Idler from Poolesville, Maryland
Archaeology Museum


Istanbul’s Archaeological Museum is divided into three separately-housed collections: The Museum of the Ancient Orient, located in the building closest to the entrance; another building which housed the original Ottoman Imperial Museum and now contains a collection of Turkish tiles and ceramics; and the Archaeological Museum proper, located in the third and largest of the buildings ranged around a gravel courtyard. Many visitors, in their rush to see the "big three" of the old city (Aya Sofya, the Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace), pass up the opportunity to visit this museum, which is next to Topkapi Palace and Gülhane Park. Perhaps the idea of visiting an archaeological museum conjures images of crumbling artifacts and bits of pottery lifelessly displayed in dimly-lit sterile rooms. If so, they should reconsider.

This award-winning museum has been undergoing renovation throughout the past decade, winning the Council of Europe’s Museum Award in 1993. The carefully chosen pieces are displayed with great artistic sensitivity, particularly in the largest building, with the placement, lighting, and curator notes enhancing the museum-goer’s experience. Within the boundaries of modern Turkey and the former Ottoman Empire are archaeological sites from many of the world’s great cultures, including Thracian, Bithynian, Byzantine, Egyptian, Hittite, and Mesopotamian. It’s worth remembering, for example, that the site of ancient Troy is actually located in modern Turkey rather than Greece. This happy circumstance places Turkish archaeologists in a unique position to explore the past.

The first building, the Museum of the Ancient Orient, features an impressive display of antiquities from the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Hittite cultures. One of the standouts is a large glazed brick frieze of lions and bulls set against a blue background from Babylon’s Ishtar Gate. Less impressive looking, but of great historical importance, is the Treaty of Kadesh, a tablet dating from 1269 BC that contains the world’s first peace treaty.

The building adjacent to the Museum of the Ancient Orient houses a collection of Turkish tiles and ceramics, with some lovely examples of Iznik tiles. The pride of the collection is the gorgeous blue tiled mihrab from the city of Karaman in southeast Turkey.

The largest building, a long neoclassical affair with four tall columns set along the entrance, houses the Archaeology Museum. Upon entering the museum, the visitor is greeted by an appealingly grotesque statue of Bes, an Egyptian dwarf god believed to guard against evil spirits. From the entrance, the visitor makes a choice to go right, left, or up. If pressed for time, go left to view the magnificent marble tombs brought from Sidon by Osman Hamdi Bey, a 19th century Renaissance man who was most responsible for the museum’s development.

The museum is at its best when it first opens at 9:30 a.m., when there are few visitors and the noisy groups of schoolchildren who plague many of Istanbul’s museums have not yet made their appearance. The entrance fee is approximately $3. The museum is open until 4:30 and is closed on Mondays.

From journal Istanbul Idyll

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