İstanbul Archaeology Museums

Lonely Planet review

It may not pull the number of visitors that flock to nearby Topkapı, but this is a stunner of a museum complex that shouldn't be missed. It can be easily reached by walking down the slope from Topkapı's Court of the Janissaries First Court, or by walking up the hill from the main gate of Gülhane Parkı, just near the tram stop.

The complex is divided into three buildings: the Archaeology Museum (Arkeoloji Müzesi), the Museum of the Ancient Orient (Eski Şark Eserler Müzesi) and the Tiled Pavilion (Çinili Köşk). These museums house the palace collections, formed during the late 19th century by museum director, artist and archaeologist Osman Hamdi Bey and added to greatly since the republic. While not immediately as dazzling as Topkapı, they contain a wealth of artefacts from the 50 centuries of Anatolia's history. Excellent interpretive panels are in both Turkish and English. A board at the entrance lists which of the exhibits are open and which are closed on the day.

The first building on your left as you enter the museum complex is the Museum of the Ancient Orient. Overlooking the park, it was designed by Alexander Vallaury and built in 1883 to house the Academy of Fine Arts. It displays Anatolian pieces (from Hittite empires) as well as pre-Islamic items collected from the expanse of the Ottoman Empire. You can't miss the series of large glazed-brick panels depicting various animals such as lions and bulls. These beautiful blue-and-yellow panels lined the processional street and the Ishtar gate of ancient Babylon from the time of Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC). Other treats here are the amazing 1st century BC alabaster statue heads from Yemen and the oldest surviving political treaty: a copy of the Kadesh Treaty drawn up in the 13th century BC between the Egyptians and Hittites. There are also clay tablets bearing Hammurabi's famous law code (in cuneiform, of course), ancient Egyptian scarabs and Assyrian reliefs.

On the opposite side of the courtyard is the Archaeology Museum, housed in an imposing neoclassical building. The major building in the complex, it features an extensive collection of Hellenic, Hellenistic and Roman statuary and sarcophagi.

A Roman statue of Bes, an impish half-god of inexhaustible power and strength who was thought to protect against evil, greets you as you enter the main entrance of the museum. Turn left into Room 1, and walk to the dimly lit rooms beyond, where the museum's major treasures - sarcophagi from the Royal Necropolis of Sidon - are displayed. These sarcophagi were unearthed in 1887 by Osman Hamdi Bey in Sidon (Side in modern-day Lebanon). As soon as they were discovered the sarcophagi were swiftly whisked out of the country in a complex operation that involved them being carried on rails laid to the coast and then rafted out to sea, where they were hoisted onto ships and brought to İstanbul. In Room 2 you will see a sarcophagus that is Egyptian in origin; it was later reused by King Tabnit of Sidon. Also here is a beautifully preserved Lycian sarcophagus made from Paros marble dating from the end of the 5th century. It depicts horses, centaurs and human figures with beautifully rendered expressions on their faces. Next to this is the Satrap sarcophagus with its everyday scenes featuring the provincial governor. After admiring these, pass into Room 3 to see one of the most accomplished of all classical artworks, the famous marble Alexander sarcophagus - so named not because it belonged to the Macedonian general, but because it depicts him among his army battling the Persians (long pants, material headwear), who were led by King Abdalonymos and whose sarcophagus it was. Truly exquisite, it is carved out of pentelic marble and dates from the last quarter of the 4th century BC. Alexander, on horseback, has a lion's head as a headdress. Remarkably, the sculpture has remnants of its original red-and-yellow paintwork. At the end of this room the Mourning Women sarcophagus also bears traces of its original paintwork. Its depiction of the women is stark and very moving.

In the next room you'll find an impressive collection of ancient grave cult sarcophagi from Syria, Lebanon, Thessalonica and Ephesus. Beyond that is a room called 'The Columned Sarcophagi of Anatolia', filled with amazingly detailed sarcophagi dating from between 140-270 AD. Many of these look like tiny temples or residential buildings; don't miss the Sidamara Sarcophagus from Konya.

Further rooms contain examples of Anatolian architecture from antiquity and Lycian monuments.

Turn back and retrace your steps towards the statue of Bes. The underwhelming 'Anatolia and Troy Through the Ages' exhibition is accessed via a staircase between the rooms hosing the Alexander and Satrap sarcophagi; there are also toilets here.

Returning to Bes, you should then move into Room 4, the first of the museum's statuary galleries. It and Rooms 5 and 6 exhibit a selection of fine works, including a delicate Attic horse's head in Room 6. Alexander makes another appearance (Room 7) - you'll see his bust and statue from the Hellenistic period. In Room 8 don't miss the Ephebos of Tralles, a statue of a young boy wrapped in a cape and leaning against a pillar. And in Room 9, which is crowded with busts, note both the stunning head of the poetess Sappho, a copy of an original from the Hellenistic period, and the exquisite head of a child from Pergamum.

Artisans at Anatolia's three main sculpture centres - Aphrodisias, Ephesus and Miletus - turned out thousands of beautiful works, some of which have been collected in Room 10. There's a beautiful relief from Aphrodisias showing the struggle of Athena and the Giants, and a statue from Miletus showing Apollo wearing ornate sandals and playing a lyre. The last room has examples of sculpture from throughout the Roman Empire. Check out the delicately carved draperies on the Roman statue of Cornelia Antonia, which dates from the second half of the 2nd century AD.

In the annex behind the main ground floor gallery there is an unimpressive mock-up of the facade of the Temple of Athena at Assos (Behramkale). On the mezzanine level above the Temple of Athena is an exhibition called 'İstanbul Through the Ages', tracing the city's history through its neighbourhoods during different periods: Archaic, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman. This is well worth a visit, particularly for its new exhibit on the excavation of the Byzantine harbour and boats at Yenikapı, uncovered in 2004 during excavation works for İstanbul's huge Marmaray transport project.

While children will be bored stiff with the naff dioramas of early Anatolian life in the Children's Museum found off Room 1, they will no doubt be impressed by the large-scale model of the Trojan Horse, which they can climb into.

The last of the complex's museum buildings is the Tiled Pavilion of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror. Thought to be the oldest surviving nonreligious Turkish building in İstanbul, it was built in 1472 as an outer pavilion of Topkapı Palace and was used for watching sporting events. The recessed doorway area is covered with tiles - some with white calligraphy ( sülüus ) on blue. The geometric patterns and colour of the tiles - turquoise, white, black - on the facade show obvious Seljuk influence. The portico, with its 14 marble columns, was constructed during the reign of Abdülhamid I (1774-1789) after the original one burned down in 1737.

Much of the interior of the kiosk is covered with triangular and hexagonal tiles of brown, green, yellow and blue. On display is the best collection of Seljuk, Anatolian and Ottoman tiles and ceramics in the country; these date from the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 20th century. The collection includes İznik tiles from the period in the 17th and 18th centuries when that city produced the finest coloured tiles in the world. When you enter the first room you can't miss the stunning mihrab from the İbrahim Bey Mosque, built in 1432. Also of note is the pretty peacock-adorned fountain recessed into the wall in the room to the left at the back of the kiosk; this dates from 1590.