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
A must to see take the small bus from the main road outside the Hotel then catch the tram down from Antalya.
A interesting collection reflecting the different eras of this area
What a brilliant museum! Our son (age 7) was free, and we all paid the extra 5 lira for the headsets (a must for the English visitors to really 'get' the museum). Parking was free.
The exhibits were amazing and beautifully displayed – some items were 5000 years old. The marble statues were stunning – both from an artistic perspective…
We've visited the archaeological museum of Antalya as well and were surprised about the ancient history of the region! A perfect variation of Antalya's history.
The most interesting are the garden, with chicken and praw!!! the rest you can forget/And a part of the bones of ST-NICOLAUS are olso not there(There they tell you that they are in Demre and in Demre they say that they are in the museum of Antalya
Good collection of statues and other archaeological finds, great explanation (which includes some description of the Turkish approach to conservation of its archaelogic finds), and not too overwhelming for a 2 hour visit. Highly recommend.
This is a really good little museum. There's actually more in here than you'd think just seeing it from the outside. There are a large number of artifacts, sculptures, sarcophagi, etc. dating back to Neanderthal and first homosapiens, and 3rd and 4th century. Several rooms to see. Really, their collection was extraordinary. You can easily spend a couple of hours…
Amazing collection
Well maintained
Informative
Conveniently located (easily reachable by the nostalgic tram) and close to the beach
prehistoric,hellenistical,roman and classical ottoman…they have everything in there.spare at least one hour maybe more and you can sea beautiful statues of alexander the great roman emp.s and greek gods,godesses.
The marble statues and sarcophagi are amazing. It was surprising to see the earthenware pots used for burial and see one week later in a document, that they were also used in Peru. In case you want to buy a carpet, by the book "All you need to know before buying oriental carpets in Turkey" first, from the bookshop of…