Istanbul Archaeological Museums

The Istanbul Archaeological Museums are a compound of museums consisting of three major sections: The Archaeology Museum, The Museum of the Ancient Orient, and The Tiled Kiosk Museum. These three separate main units are located in the same garden and house the palace collections formed during the late 19th century by museum director, master painter, and archaeologist Osman Hamdi Bey. The Archaeology Museum has about a million artifacts from a variety of cultures, brought from the imperial lands. The Tiled Kiosk, built during the reign of Mehmet the Conqueror, was converted into a museum and features examples of Turkish tiles and ceramics from the Selcuk and Ottoman periods. The Museum of Ancient Orient showcases works of ancient cultures of the near east countries, including artifacts from the Sidon King Necropolis excavation