The Antalya Archaeological Museum is one of Turkey’s largest museums, located in Antalya. It includes 13 exhibition halls and an open air gallery. It covers an area of 7,000 m2 (75,000 sq ft) and has 5000 works of art are exhibited. In addition a further 25,000–30,000 artifacts which cannot be displayed are in storage. As a museum exhibiting examples of works, which illuminate the history of the Mediterranean and Pamphylia regions in Anatolia, Antalya Museum is one of the most important of Turkey’s museums. The Museum won the “European Council Special Prize” in 1988.
At the end of the World War I, during the time when Antalya was under the Italian military occupation, Italian archeologists started to remove the archeological treasures that had been found in the center or the surroundings to the Italian Embassy, which they claimed to do in the name of civilization. To prevent these initiatives, Süleyman Fikri Bey, the Sultan’s teacher, applied to the Antalya post and jurisdiction of the provincial Governor in 1919 and had himself appointed as voluntary curator of antiquities and first tried to establish the Antalya Museum by collecting what remained in the center.
The museum at first operated in the Alâeddin Mosque in 1922, then in Yivli Minare Mosque beginning from 1937, and then moved to its present building in 1972. It was closed to visitors for a wide range of modifications and restorations in 1982. It was reorganized according to a modern approach for a museum and opened to the public in April 1985, after the restorations and display arrangements made by the General Directorate of Ancient Objects and Museums.
Roman Dancer at Antalya Archaeological Museum
Bronze age burial practice around here (for some): in a big amphora jar
Three Graces in Antalya Archaeological Museum
Turkey is the mother load of Roman ruins, and this museum has much of the statuary and detail work. A wonderful resource.
I only wish I had booked another 2 hours to spend there. It beat anything I saw in larger cities anywhere. Well laid out and an incredible set of antiquities
We had visited the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul, so we weren't sure we would enjoy this, but it was well organized and very interesting. We visited Perga after the museum so it was fun to see what had been there.
Excellent museum – one of the best of its kind I have seen. Beautiful displayed and easy to access for novices as well as knowledgers. And quiet. And cool (highly appeciated in Antalya in August!). You will not be disappointed – even our teenage-daughters enjoyed our visit.
I expected it to be much smaller. Very nice pieces, really worth it.
In fact most of Perge is in the Museum 🙂
The museum is easy to get to from downtown Antalya – with the old tramway costing 1,5 TL.
It is well worth a visit, specially for those who have visited Perge (a few km. east of the airport).
We paid a visit 6 years ago,- there has been some small changes but it was very interesting to visit again.
Last…
Plenty to see but not too large. Well laid out and well lit. Pleasant cafe in a confusing state of refurbishment.
city and shopping are great and beach is not so good
I only had too little time to see the whole collection.
Visiting the Antalya Museum after a good tour of Perge reveals the richness and splendour of what that ancient city must have been. The sculptures are particularly impressive and almost everything is explained and labeled in English and German as well as Turkish.