In the past a visit to a Turkish museum was often a demoralising experience. You would step through the door to find a group of men drinking tea in the lobby, one of whom reluctantly got up, unlocked the doors and turned on the lights. If you were lucky, he then sat back down again; if not, he would trail along behind you, making you feel more like an intruder than a valued visitor. None of this was ever the case, of course, when it came to the blockbuster museums, the real gems that it was worth going out of your way to include on your itinerary. And the good news is that since 2015 most provinces have acquired trophy museums which showcase the best of modern museography.
These used to be the standout museums and they are still the big museums most visitors are likeliest to visit. In time I hope to see the new ones in Troy, Adana. Kayseri, Uşak and many other places. The Antakya Museum, sadly, is closed for the foreseeable future as a result of the damage it suffered during the terrible earthquakes of 2023.
İstanbul Archaeology Museum(s)
İstanbul’s answer to the British Museum or the New York Metropolitan is the Archaeology Museum, actually a trio of museums housed in lovely buildings in the lee of the Topkapı Palace and beside Gülhane Park. The finest of them three is the exquisite Çinili Köşk (Tiled Pavilion) which dates back to the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror and now houses a collection of Turkish ceramics – everything from the finest İznik ware through to more modern pieces. (In 2024 it was closed for restoration.) The Eski Şark Eserler Müzesi (Museum of the Ancient Orient) exhibits finds from all over the Ottoman Empire. But the finest pieces of all are on display in the imposing Arkeoloji Müzesi (Archaeology Museum) where top prize would have to go to the exquisite Alexander Sarcophagus, a piece dating back to the 4th century BC and depicting the exploits of Alexander the Great, which was transported here from the Sidon necropolis (now in Lebanon). The ground and first floors of this part of the museum have been given impressive makeovers. Slowly but surely the rest will follow.
Open daily: 9am-5.30pm. Admission: 15 euros
Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts
Overlooking İstanbul’s Hippodrome, what was once the palace of İbrahim Paşa, the brother-in-law of Süleyman the Magnificent, now houses a wonderful selection of old Qurans, mosque lamps and candlesticks, and magnificent carpets, including some Uşak pieces that stretch from floor to ceiling. Accessed from the garden is the fine ethnographic section where you can inspect a yörük tent and learn more about the vanished nomadic lifestyle.
Open daily: 9am-7.30pm. Admission: 17 euros
Rahmi M. Koç Museum
Turkey’s first industrial heritage museum is housed inside a surprisingly beautiful old anchor-making factory and in the cluster of buildings around an old shipyard at Hasköy on İstanbul’s Golden Horn. Come here to sigh over glistening old Chevrolets and Jaguars from the days before we all started worrying about the environment and to inspect all types of transport from some of the city’s original tram carriages to the railway compartment in which Sultan Abdülaziz traveled to Paris in 1867. It all adds up to a great day out for children.
Closed Monday. Open: 9.30am-5pm Tuesday-Friday, 10am-7pm Saturday-Sunday. Admission: TL190
Pera Museum
Housed in a fine old mansion that started life as the Hotel Bristol on Meşrutiyet Caddesi in İstanbul’s Tepebaşı district, the Pera Museum hosts changing art exhibitions as well as a permanent collection of images of İstanbul from the 17th century, many of them created by foreign visitors to the city. The single most popular painting is Osman Hamdi Bey’s magnificent “The Tortoise Trainer”, which is far bigger and more impressive than tawdry reproductions around town might suggest. Here, too, you can see an impressive display of Kütahya pottery as well as a collection of Anatolian weights and measures that is of rather specialist interest.
Closed Monday. Open: 10am-7pm Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-10pm Friday, noon-6pm Sunday. Admission: TL100 (free Friday 6-10pm)
Museum of Anatolian Civilisations, Ankara
If there’s one reason for a foreign visitor to break their journey in Ankara, it’s probably to visit the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations housed in an old bedesten (market building) on the hillside beneath the Hisar (Castle) district. Most of the greatest finds from excavations in Anatolia have wound up here (those that have not been taken overseas, of course), and the Neolithic wall paintings from Çatalhöyük, a gorgeous Urartian cauldron, hundreds of cuneiform tablets from Kültepe, near Kayseri, and wonderful Hittite reliefs from Hattuşa, near Çorum, are all displayed in chronological order. It makes the perfect prelude or conclusion to a tour with a strong archaeological focus.
Open daily: 8.30am-8pm. Admission: TL280
Antalya Museum
Escaping from the big conurbations, Antalya has one of the country’s best museums largely because of its proximity to the important archaeological sites at Termessos, Side, Perge and Aspendos. The finest room is the so-called Hall of Gods where statues of sixteen Roman gods and goddesses, mainly found at Perge, are beautifully displayed. More poignant is a room which shows off sarcophagi and other ancient pieces recovered from overseas museums over the last two decades.
Open daily: 8.30am-9pm. Admission: TL340
Ephesus Museum
An essential add-on to any visit to the famous ruins of Ephesus is this small museum, actually in nearby Selçuk and therefore easy to overlook. Come here to see dioramas of what life would have been like during Ephesus’ heyday and to inspect one of the curious multi-breasted statues of the goddess Kybele/Artemis (some commentators insist the strange egg shapes hanging down her chest really represent the severed testicles of her priests). You’ll probably get the most out of a visit after touring the site itself first.
Open daily: 8am-9pm. Admission: 10 euros
Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology
Housed in the spectacular Castle of St Peter right on the waterfront, the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology which could hardly have a better setting – and for some people that in itself will be enough to justify a visit. Others, however, will swoon over the remains of wrecked ships dating back to prehistoric times that have been carefully reconstructed here, as well as over the sight of a Carian princess and her funerary finery displayed alongside a reconstruction of what she might have looked like in life, but these are just the tip of an iceberg of furnished towers and landscaped grounds that make this museum such a joy to explore.
Open daily: 8.30am-10pm. Some rooms keep individual opening hours. Admission: 20 euros
Zeugma Mosaic Museum, Gaziantep
The star in the crown of rapidly modernising Gaziantep is the museum where the mosaics from Belkis-Zeugma, the Roman town on the banks of the Fırat (Euphrates) that was drowned by the Birecik Dam in 2001, are on display. The pieces are spectacular, like carpets made from tiny stones, and the layout does them proud, with raised walkways enabling visitors to gaze down on them from above. Finest of all the exhibits is the tiny mosaic of the head of a gypsy girl on show in the older part of the museum. It has become the de facto symbol of Gaziantep so make sure you don’t miss it. Although Gaziantep was damaged by the 2023 earthquakes the Mosaic Museum survived.
Open daily: 8.30am-7pm. Admission: 12 euros
Antakya Museum
Until the earthquakes struck in 2023 the Antakya Museum was right up there with the best of them, even after Gaziantep stole most of the mosaic thunder. The mosaics on display in Antakya mainly come from Dafne (Harbiye), a southerly suburb which was where wealthy Romans liked to built their villas. Some of them, such as the one of the sea deities Oceanus and Thetis, are so fine that from a distance they could be mistaken for paintings. Others are extremely quirky, like the tiny picture of a collection of ravens, scorpions and pitchforks attacking an “evil eye”. Although reports suggest that the contents of the museum survived the terrible toll the 2023 earthquakes took from the town, it is nonetheless closed for the time being.
