Istanbul Archaeology Museums

The Istanbul Archaeology Museums stand in the Eminönü quarter of Istanbul's historic peninsula, between Gülhane Park and the outer courtyard of Topkapı Palace. The group is made up of three museums: the Archaeological Museum, the Museum of the Ancient Orient and the Museum of Islamic Art in the Tiled Kiosk. Together they hold about one million objects.

The collection began in the church of Hagia Irene, and an imperial decree established it as the Imperial Museum in 1869. The painter and archaeologist Osman Hamdi Bey became director and built up the collection with finds from excavations across the Ottoman Empire, including the royal necropolis at Sidon in Lebanon. The neoclassical main building, opened in 1891, was designed to house the sarcophagi found there, and it is often called the first museum in Turkey.

The best-known piece is the Alexander Sarcophagus, a marble tomb from the 4th century BC carved with battle and hunting scenes featuring Alexander the Great, with traces of original paint. The Sarcophagus of the Mourning Women and other tombs from Sidon are nearby. The Museum of the Ancient Orient, in a building of 1883, displays finds from Mesopotamia, Egypt and Anatolia, including a tablet of the peace treaty between Egypt and the Hittites after the Battle of Kadesh. The Tiled Kiosk, built for Sultan Mehmed II in 1472, is one of the oldest Ottoman buildings in the city and displays tiles and ceramics.

Other notable objects include the Siloam Inscription from Jerusalem and sculpture from Troy, Ephesus and other ancient sites in Anatolia.

Entry is by ticket, and the museum is a short walk from the Gülhane tram stop on the T1 line. Allow at least two hours. Parts of the main building have been closed for earthquake strengthening in recent years, so check which galleries are open before you go.

Space shaped the museum's early years. The collection outgrew Hagia Irene and moved into the Tiled Kiosk, where it stayed between 1875 and 1891. Osman Hamdi Bey, a painter and the son of the grand vizier Ibrahim Edhem Pasha, was appointed in 1881. His excavation of the royal necropolis at Sidon, in today's Lebanon, made it clear that a purpose-built home was needed, and he started the main building that year. It opened officially on 13 June 1891.

The Museum of the Ancient Orient began as something else: Osman Hamdi Bey commissioned the building in 1883 as a school of fine arts, and it was turned over to the museum later. The Alexander Sarcophagus itself came from the Ayaa necropolis at Sidon, part of the same excavations.