Istanbul Archaeological Museum Photo Collection

Description: The Istanbul Archaeological Museums are a complex of museums consisting of three main structures; The Archaeological Museum, The Museum of Ancient Oriental Works, and The Tiled Kiosk Museum. The Istanbul Archaeological Museum, as the first museum in Turkey, has around one million artifacts from various cultures and countries.

The museum began in the Ottoman period as a collection gathered by Mehmet the Conqueror. This collection later turned into an official museum in 1869 as the “Imperial Museum,” housed in the Hagia Irene Church.

The two other museums, The Tiled Kiosk Museum and The Museum of Ancient Oriental Works, were established in 1881 and 1883 respectively. The Tiled Kiosk Museum was originally built in the reign of Mehmet the Conqueror and was later converted into a museum as one of the earliest displays of Ottoman civil architecture in Istanbul. The museum houses a collection of various Turkish tiles and ceramics. The Museum of Ancient Oriental Works was then constructed by Osman Hamdi Bey and designed by the architect Alexander Vallaury to house various finds from Bey’s archaeological excavations.

Vallaury then designed a neo-classical building to house the various artifacts of the “Imperial Museum.” This museum opened on 1891 and was renamed The Istanbul Archaeological Museum. Along with the original collection, the museum hosts impressive works such as the Iskender Tomb, the Lycia Tomb, and the Tabnit Tomb (all of which were brought to Istanbul from the Sidon Necropolis in 1887 and 1888. (Istanbul Archaeological Museums)

(DAILY SABAH)