İstanbul Archaeological Museums

The Istanbul Archaeological Museums is a museum complex consisting of three main units: the Archaeological Museum, the Museum of the Ancient Orient, and the Tiled Kiosk Museum. The Archaeological Museum, the first museum in Türkiye, houses approximately one million artifacts representing various cultures brought from different regions of the former imperial geography.

Following the discovery in 1887 of the Royal Necropolis of Sidon (Saida, Lebanon)—considered one of the most significant archaeological finds of its time—and the need for a new building to display major works such as the Alexander Sarcophagus and the Tabnit Sarcophagus, the Archaeological Museum was established under the leadership of Osman Hamdi Bey as the Müze-i Hümayun (Imperial Museum) and opened to visitors on 13 June 1891. The building was designed by the renowned architect Alexandre Vallaury; with the addition of the left and right wings in 1903 and 1908, it took the form of today’s Main Museum Building.

Artifacts displayed in the exhibition halls of the main building are arranged in chronological order. Among the highlights are finds from the Royal Necropolis of Sidon, including the Sarcophagus of the Mourning Women, the Tabnit Sarcophagus, and the Alexander Sarcophagus; the Branchidae statues from the Didyma–Miletus Sacred Way; kore and kouros statues dating from the Archaic Period through the end of the Roman Imperial Period; the Lion from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; the head of Aphrodite from the Pergamon Altar of Zeus; a portrait of Alexander the Great; and sculptural works from the Roman-period marble centers of Aphrodisias, Ephesus, and Miletus.

Due to ongoing exhibition and display reorganization works, the galleries titled Ancient Funerary Culture, Columnar Sarcophagi of Anatolia, and Examples of Ancient Anatolian Architecture, as well as the Thrace, Bithynia, Istanbul Through the Ages, Cyprus, Syria, and Palestine exhibitions located in the annex building, are temporarily closed to visitors. 🏛️📌