Istanbul Archeological Museums

These are terrific museums. I’m a great fancier of museums having spent days in them around the world. It began when I lived in London and took my lunch breaks wandering about the fabulous British Museum. I loved the Museums of Mexico City and Athens. The museums of Washington DC are really a treat.   I was just in the Hermitage last year.  This is one of the better ones with a really well thought out lay out and display. I always wish I had more time. But this day  we were on a schedule wanting to get to the palace before it closed. One could easily spend a most enjoyable day here.
When we walked through the museum, my guide Mehmet Tetik wanted me to see the highlights.
There are three main museums. Archeological Museum, and Museum of Ancient Orient and Museum of Islamic Art.  Renovations were going on so some of the most famous sarcophagus were not on display.  In particular the Alexander sarcophagus with the mostly intact frieze.
I liked that there were exhibits from the Hittites simply because I’d read of them in the Old Testament Bible.
The Ishtar Gate is truly an artistic wonder..





The Kadesh treaty is the oldest known ceasefire. It was made between the Hitties and Egyptians from around 1259 BC





Great purple sarcophagus.




The Siloam Inscription is Biblical Hebrew from the 10th century bc. Mehmet told me that when he had guided Jews they wanted first to see this when they came to the museum as it is such an important treasure.



The Troy exhibit was most
interested. There were many cities at the site, the Red lines representing the Helen of Troy time with jewelry from Helen of Troy. Today's Armenian Kim Kardashian probably has much more impressive jewelry but in it's day this was no doubt Vogue. And given the story of her beauty, less was likely more.


The snakes head from the Hippodrome column was all that was left of the three heads.




There was a very informative exhibit on the Roman aqueduct system.






You can’t help but love seeing a man and his dog immortalized.





A bust of Sappho from the Island of Lesbos.



Showing Persian time.