Istanbul
Archaeology Museum
The Istanbul Archaeology Museums are so
incredible that they had to use three different sites to house
it all, that is located in the Eminonu district of Istanbul,
Turkey, near Gulhane Park and Topkapi Palace. These three
include the archaeological museum in the main building, with the
Museum of the Ancient Orient and the Museum of Islamic Art, in
the tiled kiosk. This fabulous museum complex houses more than a
million artifacts that represent just about every area of time
and civilizations that are part of our world history. The museum
of the ancient orient had been commissioned by Osman Hamdi Bey
in 1883 as a fine arts school, and then later converted to a
museum that opened in 1935, while the tiled kiosk was
commissioned by Sultan Mehmed II in 1472, making it one of the
oldest buildings in the city that features Ottoman civil
architecture and had been part of the outer gardens of the
Topkapi Palace. Some of the most spectacular artifacts in the
world can be viewed here and include the elaborate Alexander
sarcophagus, that had been prepared for Alexander the Great, is
probably one of the most famous relics, with the Kadesh Peace
Treaty of 1258 BC that was signed by Ramesses II of Egypt and
Hattusili III of the Hittite Empire is another favorite of
visitors, as well as being the oldest known peace treaty in the
world; with a huge poster of these tablets on the wall of the
United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Other relics in
this fabulous collection include the sarcophagus of the Crying
women that was discovered in Sidon along with the sarcophagus of
Alexander, the sarcophagi of Tabnit and Satrap, the Lycian tomb,
Siloam inscription, statue of an Ephebos, glazed tile images
from the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, busts of Alexander the Great
and Zeus, obelisk of the Assyrian king Adad-nirari III, the Troy
exhibit, 800,000 Ottoman coins, decorations, medals and seals,
relics from the early civilizations of Anatolia, Arabia, Egypt
and Mesopotamia, and much more.
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