Museum sights in Turkey
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Museum of Underwater Archaeology
The space in the Castle of St Peter that was once used to store booty collected during underwater archaeology missions, now houses Bodrum's Museum of Underwater Archaeology. It is arguably the most important museum of its type in the world, a veritable lesson in how to bring ancient exhibits to life. Items are creatively displayed and well lit, and information panels, maps, models, drawings, murals, dioramas and videos all help to animate them.
It's undoubtedly one of the best museums in Turkey, not to mention the Mediterranean (and could teach some of the cupboard-like Victorian museums in the West a thing or two!).
The views from the battalions are spectacular and worth…
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Miniaturk
We can’t explain why this new museum has been such a hit with locals. Marketed as a miniature park that showcases ‘all times and locations of Anatolia at the same place at the same time’, it’s a bizarre tiny town stocked with models of Turkey’s great buildings – everything from the Celsus Library at Ephesus to Atatürk International Airport – set in manicured lawns dotted with fake rocks blasting a distorted recording of the national anthem. Children aren’t interested in the models but love the miniature train that traverses the paths and the playground equipment. It’s tacky and only really interesting as a demonstration of how greatly Turks revere their heritage, even…
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Museum of Anatolian Civilisations
Still proudly displaying its 1997 Best European Museum award, this is the perfect introduction to the complex weave of Turkey's chequered past. It's home to artefacts discovered in most excavations throughout the country, taken from nine different civilisations. Even the museum itself is an artefact, housed in a beautifully restored 15th-century bazaar.
The 10-domed central market building houses reliefs and statuary, while the surrounding halls display exhibits from the earlier Anatolian civilisations: Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Assyrian, Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian and Lydian. The downstairs sections holds classical Greek and Roman artefacts and…
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Amasya Museum
The first floor of this superb museum packs in beautifully laid out exhibits detailing Amasya and the surrounding area during the Bronze Age, Hittite, Pontic and Roman eras. Look out for the famous Statuette of Amasya, a bronze figure of the Hittite storm god Teshub, with a conical hat and almond-shaped eyes. All the displays have detailed information panels in English. Upstairs the extensive collection continues into later periods, with unwieldy manuscripts, Ottoman artefacts and an armoury of flintlock guns among the displays. In the middle of the room, the original wooden doors from Amasya's Gök Medrese Camii show the progression between Seljuk and Ottoman carving.…
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Ethnography Museum
The Ethnography Museum is housed inside a white marble post-Ottoman building (1927) that served as Atatürk's mausoleum until 1953.
Past the equestrian statue out the front, the mausoleum is preserved in the entrance hall. Around the walls are photographs of Atatürk's funeral. The collection is superb, with displays covering henna ceremonies, Anatolian jewellery, rug-making, Seljuk ceramics, early-15th-century doors and (opposite the anxious-looking mannequins in the circumcision display) coffee. Also of interest is the ethnography collection of writer and scientist Besim Atalay, who translated the Koran into Turkish.
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City Museum
Bursa has a state-of-the-art City Museum, housed in what was once the old courthouse at Heykel. Ground-floor exhibits whip through the history of the city, with information on the sultans most closely associated with it. Unfortunately, the labelling is in Turkish only, apart from the section headings. Luckily the cultural and ethnographical collections upstairs need little explanation.
Down in the basement there are reconstructions of old shops which are wonderful, with films showing old-fashioned artisans at work. Newspaper clippings also show a couple of local characters to look out for: Deli Ayten, the banjo-playing bag lady, and 'Tarzan Ali', a 59-year-old former…
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İznik Museum
The city museum is housed in a soup kitchen that Sultan Murat I built for his mother, Nilüfer Hatun, in 1388. Born a Byzantine princess, Nilüfer was given to Sultan Orhan to cement a diplomatic alliance.
The museum's grounds contain marble statuary, while the lofty whitewashed halls contain original İznik tiles, with their milky bluish-white and rich 'İznik red' hues. Other displays include 8000-year-old finds from a nearby tumulus (burial mound) at Ilıpınar, indicating links with Neolithic Balkan culture.
Opposite, see the restored Şeyh Kutbettin Camii (1492).
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Van Museum
This compact museum was closed at the time of writing following the 2011 earthquakes, and a potential move to near Van Castle was also rumoured. Check at the tourist information office for the latest update.
The museum boasts an outstanding collection of Urartian exhibits, including exquisite gold jewellery, and an array of bronze belts, helmets, horse armour and terracotta figures.
The ethnographic exhibits upstairs include local Kurdish and Turkoman kilims and a carpeted sitting area, such as is found in village houses. The Genocide Section is a piece of one-sided propaganda displaying the contents of graves left from the massacres of Turks and Kurds by Armenians at…
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Trabzon Museum
This Italian-designed mansion, built for a Russian merchant and completed in 1913, briefly hosted Atatürk in 1924. The ornate interiors and original furnishings put most Ottoman re-creations to shame, with high-ceilinged rooms displaying ethnographic and Islamic artefacts, mostly labelled in English. The basement archaeological section also has significant pieces, including a flattened bronze statue of Hermes from local excavations at Tabakhane and some beautiful wooden Byzantine icons.
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Gaziantep Museum
This museum previously housed the city's astounding collection of mosaics. Following their relocation to the new Gaziantep Mosaic Museum, this location now focuses on Hittite carvings and sculpture, and a wonderful collection of ancient seals.
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Koyunoğlu Museum
This curious museum contains the legacy of railway inspector Izzet Koyunoğlu who built up his esoteric collection of rare, er, collectables on his travels through Turkey. Our heart goes out to the tired-looking stuffed pelican, but there is a wonderful variety of exhibits, encompassing prehistoric bones, rhinoceros-horn rosaries, boxwood spoons bearing words of wisdom about food, 19th-century carriage clocks, and old photos of Konya. Ask the guards to unlock the recreated Koyunoğlu Konya Evi, which shows how a well-heeled Konyalı family lived a century ago. Izzet lived in the original building with US$3 million of art around him.
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Suna & İnan Kıraç Kaleiçi Museum
In the heart of Kaleiçi, just off Hesapçı Sokak, this small but well-formed ethnography museum is housed in a lovingly restored Antalya mansion. The 2nd floor contains a well-executed series of life-size dioramas depicting some of the most important rituals and customs of Ottoman Antalya. Much more impressive is the collection of Çanakkale and Kütahya ceramics found in the exhibition hall behind, the former Greek Orthodox church of Aya Yorgi (St George), which has been fully restored and is worth a look in itself.
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Fortress & Çeşme Museum
The Genoese fortress, whose dramatic walls dominate the town centre, was built in the 16th century and repaired by Sultan Beyazıt, son of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror (Mehmet Fatih), to defend the coast from attack by pirates. Later the Knights of St John of Jerusalem based on Rhodes also made use of it. The battlements offer excellent views of Çeşme but otherwise the interior is disappointingly empty. The one exception is the north tower, which houses the Çeşme Museum (Çeşme Müzesi), displaying some archaeological finds from nearby Erythrae.
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İzmir Ethnography Museum
A bit more engaging than the Archaeology Museum next door is the İzmir Ethnography Museum. Originally built in 1831 as the St Roche Hospital, this lovely old four-storey stone building houses colourful displays (including dioramas, photos and information panels) demonstrating local arts, crafts and customs. You'll learn about everything from camel wrestling, pottery and the task of tin-plating to felt-making, embroidery and the art of making those curious little blue-and-white 'evil eye' beads. Other displays include weaponry, jewellery and beautiful illustrated manuscripts.
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İstanbul Museum of the History of Science & Technology in Islam
Of interest to science buffs, the didactic exhibition in this museum argues that Islamic advances in science and technology preceded and greatly influenced those in Europe. Most of the exhibits are reconstructions of historical instruments and tools.
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Karanlık Kilise
The stunning fresco-filled Karanlık Kilise, is the most famous of the Open-Air Museum's churches. It took its name from the fact that it originally had very few windows. Luckily this lack of light preserved the vivid colour of the frescoes, which show, among other things, Christ as Pantocrator, Christ on the cross and the Betrayal by Judas. The church was restored at great expense, which partly explains the extra fee to visit it.
However, the charge is also intended to keep numbers down in an attempt to preserve the frescoes. It's worth every lira.
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İzmir Archaeology Museum
İzmir's Archaeology Museum is a short, unsignposted walk up the hill from Konak. It contains a fine collection of Greek and Roman artefacts. The displays are a little dry in places, but look out in particular for the beautifully decorated sarcophagi, the head of a gigantic statue of Domitian that once stood at Ephesus, and the impressive frieze depicting the funeral games from the mausoleum at Belevi (250 BC).
To get here, exit the metro and at the crossroads head left up the hill towards the red-tiled, grand building half way up the hill.
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Şanlıurfa Museum
The museum's gardens contain various sculptures, as well as several mosaics near the entrance, the most interesting showing wild animals. Inside are Neolithic implements, Assyrian, Babylonian and Hittite relief stones, and other objects from Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman times.
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Karagöz Sanat Evi
In Bursa, Şinasi Çelikkol has worked hard to keep the tradition of Karagöz puppetry alive and was instrumental in the setting up of the Karagöz Sanat Evi, opposite the Karagöz monument. It houses a small museum of puppetry with some magnificent examples from Uzbekistan. Şinasi Çelikkol's ethnographical collection is also on display here. If you would like to see the collection privately call into his shop - called, inevitably, Karagöz - in the Eski Aynalı Çarşı for an appointment.
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Hasan Süzer Ethnography Museum
This restored 200-year-old stone house features a central hayat (courtyard) patterned with light and dark stones. Rooms on the ground floor were for service; those on the 1st floor made up the selamlık (quarters for male family members and their visitors); and those on the 2nd floor were the haremlik (for female family members and their visitors).
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Archaeological Museum
The small but interesting Archaeological Museum, beside the Sahib-i Ata Külliyesi, houses local Iron Age artefacts, Byzantine mosaics from Sille and Çorum, some bizarre lumpy Assyrian lamps, and several impressive, intact sarcophagi decorated with high-relief carvings. However, the unusually informative displays on Neolithic Çatalhöyük, 50km southeast of Konya are the top draw, combining a good explanation of the site with finds including necklaces, rings and a fragment of wall painting.
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Yıldız Şale
Originally an imperial hunting lodge, this oftextended Ottoman guesthouse has hosted royalty galore.
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Museum of Health
Part of the Sultan Bayezid II Külliyesi complex, this museum has scooped European tourism awards for its illustrations of the therapy and teaching that took place here. One of the most important Ottoman hospitals, it operated from 1488 to 1909, and music therapy was employed from 1652 – when mentally ill people were still being burnt alive in Europe. A 10-piece band played different 'modes' to treat ailments from paralysis to palpitations. Because all healing work was carried out in one room (the şifahane – healing room), the hospital required fewer staff. This created the first centralised hospital system. The sound of water was also used, and the gurgling fountain…
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Tile Museum
Gorgeously restored, the interior central dome and walls of this former Seljuk theological school (1251) showcase some finely preserved blue-and-white Seljuk tilework. There is also an outstanding collection of ceramics on display including exhibits of the octagonal Seljuk tiles uneartherd during excavations at Kubad Abad Palace on Lake Beyşehir. Emir Celaleddin Karatay, a Seljuk general, vizier and statesman who built the medrese, is buried in one of the corner rooms.
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Marmaris Castle
The small castle on the hill behind the tourist office was built during the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent. In 1522 the sultan massed 200,000 troops here for the attack and siege of Rhodes, which was defended by the Knights of St John. The fortress is now the Marmaris Museum. Exhibits are predictably nautical, historical, ethnographic and fairly unexciting, though the building itself, draped in bougainvillea, and the views over the marina and out to sea are lovely.
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