Istanbul Archaeological Museum awaits interest
Monday, March 5, 2007
ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News
The Istanbul Archaeological Museum, the first Turkish museum founded by Osman Hamdi Bey in 1891 and one of the largest museums in the world with more than one million works of art, is visited by 200,000 people every year, reported the Anatolia news agency.
The museum, located on Osman Hamdi Bey Ascent that opens to the Topkapı Palace Museum from the G?lhane Park entry in Sultanahmet, is a complex of three museums; the Archaeological Museum, the Museum of Oriental Antiquities and the Tiled Pavilion.
Constructed at the end of the 19th century by Osman Hamdi Bey and called the ?M?ze-i H?mayun (Empire Museum) was opened on June 13, 1891.
The main building of the museum complex, which is home to nearly one million works of art collected from regions within the borders of the Ottoman Empire such as the Balkans, Africa, Anatolian Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula and Afghanistan, was built in 1891 by architect Alexander Vallaury. The outer face of the building was inspired by the İskender Tomb and the Crying Women tombs. It is a beautiful example of neoclassical building in Istanbul.
70,000 books in the library:
On the upper floor of the building there is small stone works, pots and pans, small terracotta statues, the Treasure department with approximately 800,000 Ottoman coins, seals, decorations, medals and non-Muslim and Muslim coin Cabinets, in which coin moulds were kept, and a Library with approximately 70,000 books.
On the bottom floor tombs are displayed such as the İskender Tomb, Crying Women Tomb, Satrap Tomb, Lykia Tomb and the Tabnit Tomb all located in the King Sayda graveyard. Besides the tombs, there are statues and reliefs. In this display, the development of the art of statues from the Archaic Period to the Byzantium Period is displayed in chronological order.
Exhibition halls:
The building is divided into exhibition halls. There is ?Istanbul for Ages? on the first floor, ?Anatolia and Troia? on the second floor and ?Surrounding Cultures of Anatolia: Cyprus, Syria-Palestine? on the top floor.
There is Infant Museum and an architectural works display on the first floor of the additional building. The Thrakia-Bithynia and Byzantium hall, which was opened in August 1998, can be visited on the floor under the first floor and called ?Surrounding Cultures of Istanbul.?
The museum received the European Council Museum Award in 1991, the 100th anniversary of its establishment, for the new arrangement made on the lower floor and the additional building display.
People are not interested in archaeological works:
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, İsmail Karamut, the director of the museum, said the museum could not receive sufficient interest despite being one of the most important museums in the world, adding: ?The number of visitors museum was about 117,000 at the end of 2004. There was an increase when the closed parts were reopened and the number of visitors reached 200,000 and more than 50 percent of visitors are local tourists and students. This number is below the number of visitors of Topkapı Palace, which is about one million annually. There are different reasons for this. Hagia Sophia and Topkapı are popular places. Of course their visitors should be more but our goal is to have the same number of visitors.?
Noting that Turkish people were not interested in archaeological works, Karamut said the other closed parts of the museum would be reopened in May this year, adding that the entrance to the museum was free on Mondays and for students.
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