Istanbul Archaeological Museum
Istanbul Archaeological Museum:
Main building of the Istanbul Archeological Museum was built by Osman Hamdi Bey in 1881. The architect of the construction was Alexander Vallaury.
The Museum is a complex consists of three main buildings located in the Eminonu district in Istanbul, near Gulhane Park and Topkapi Palace. The first building is the Museum of the Ancient Orient where Anatolian pieces from Hittite empires and pre-Islamic items collected from the Ottoman Empire are displayed.
The museum has a rich collection of Greek, Hellenistic and Roman pieces. Artifacts exhibited in the museum include:
-The Kadesh Peace Treaty (1258 BC), signed between Ramesses II of Egypt and Hattusili III of the Hittite Empire, is another favourite of the visitors. It is the oldest known peace treaty in the world.
-Alexander Sarcophagus, found in the necropolis of Sidon.
-Sarcophagus of the Crying Women, also found in Sidon.
-Sarcophagi of Tabnit and the Satrap.
-The Lycian tomb, a monumental tomb.
-Statues from ancient times until the end of the Roman period, from Aphrodisias, Ephesus and Miletus.
-Statue of an Ephebos.
-Parts of statues from the Temple of Zeus found at Bergama.
-Statue of a lion, the only piece saved from the hands of British archaeologists in the Mausoleum of Maussollos.
-Snake’s head from the Serpentine Column erected in the Hippodrome.
-Mother-Goddess Cybele.
-Busts of Alexander the Great and Zeus.
-Fragments from the temple of Athena at Assos.
-The Troy exhibit.
-800.000 Ottoman coins, seals, decorations and medals.
-One of the three known tablets of the Treaty of Kadesh.
-The obelisk of the Assyrian king Adad-nirari III.
-Tablet archive containing some 75.000 documents with cuneiform inscriptions.
-Artifacts from the early civilizations of Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Arabia and Egypt.
-Siloam inscription.
The last of the complex’s is the Tiled Kiosk of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror which was built in 1472 as an outer pavilion of Topkapı Palace.
