Museums, exhibiting thousand-year-old artifacts unearthed during excavations, bring together people of today with history and traces of the civilizations.
You may find the traces of first civilized inhabitants of prehistory on the Anatolian territories. The soils bear traces of the civilizations extending from the very first ages of the history to the Hittite, from the Phrygs to Urartians and from the Lycians to the Seljuks and to the Ottoman.
There are ancient cities almost in every region of Turkey. Museums in Turkey continuously add a new piece to the jigsaw puzzle of the past.
During the Italian occupation, an archeologist who came to southern province of Antalya, collected the antique artifacts in the region and brought them to Italian Consulate. Suleyman Fikri, a high-school teacher who was curious on history and archeology, opposed to it and laid the foundations of Antalya Museum by converting a small mosque into a museum.
Suleyman Fikri built-up Antalya Museum first in Alaaddin Mosque and later in Yivli Minaret Mosque in 1922. The museum later moved to its present building in Konyaalti Street in 1972.
Antaya Museum has 30,000 square meters area, 10,000 square meters of this are closed. There are 14 exhibition halls, an open air gallery and a garden. Antalya museum is one of the most important museums of the world with its archeological and historical characteristics.
Examples of works illuminating the regions of Lycia, Pamphylia and Psidia regions in the Antalya Museum, works of art of the Roman period, the artifacts, ethnographic works of art, sculptures, and underwater works enable the visitors experience thousands of years ago.
7,100 of the 55,000 works of art are displayed in Antalya Museum rotatingly.
A Belly Dancer Statue made of black and white marble has become one of the symbols of Antalya Museum. This statue is displayed in the Hall of Emperors. Statues portraying emperors, empresses and other personages from the Roman period are presented in this hall. All of the statues were found in the Perge excavations.
The tombs unearthed during the excavations in Perge Ancient City, famous for its worldly known marble sculptors, the sculptures depicting mythological heros, also evoke admiration in the museum.
Sarcophagus belonging to a dog, which was unearthed during excavations in Termesos Ancient City in 1998, is one of the most interesting artifacts in the Sarcophagus Hall. After its 11-line lyrical epigraph in ancient Greek was deciphered, it was found out that Rhodophe, a rich woman living alone in the Roman Period, had this sarcophagus prepared for its dog Stephanos after its death. This is one of the rare dog sarcophagus found in Anatolia.
Life sytle and culture of 450-500 years ago reach today at the Antalya Museum with the artifacts unearted in Karain Cave, 30 km away from Antalya. Grinded stone artifacts found in the cave are displayed in the museum.
Cubic tombs, depicting the burial tradition, are also among the important artifacts displayed in Antalya Museum illuminating the history. The cubic tombs, unearthed in Patara and Perge ancient cities, are on display in the museum with special lighting, presenting today the burial ceremony of the past.
The hall of the museum including underwater artifacts is one of the most attracting halls of the museum with its three dimensional lighting system.
The underground artifacts, obtained in divings off Antalya shores, are on display in the hall with blue lighting and makes the visitors feel as if they could touch the objects.
ANTALYA ATATURK'S HOUSE AND MUSEUM
It is the kiosk, belonging to Governor's office, which had been allocated to Great Leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk during his first visit to Antalya on March 6, 1930. It had later been opened to public as Antalya Ataturk's House and Museum since 1986.
There is a photograph exhibition at the entrance of two-storey museum displaying photographs of Ataturk's arrival to Antalya. There is documentary related to visits of Ataturk to Antalya and Alanya at a special room. There is a dining room, a bedroom and two study rooms on the second floor.
The coins and banknotes and stamps minted since the foundation of Turkish Republic and commemorative coins are on display at the museum. There is also a special room displaying personal belongings of the Great Leader.
SUNA-INAN KIRAC KALEICI MUSEUM
Suna-Inan Kirac Institute on Mediterranean Civilizations belonging to Koc Foundation, the only private museum in Antalya, enables people see very special collections.
Inan Kirac's interest in history started after he bought a personal property Agios Georgios Church, which was dilapidated, for his wife Suna Kirac as a birthday present. Inan Kirac later bought Antalya House that was beside the church and thus laid the foundation of Kaleici Museum and Institute of Mediterranean Civilizations following their restoration.
Many works of art are displayed in the museum complex, comprising the church and Antalya house, symbolizing living of Muslims and Christians in Kaleici, Antalya.
The museum is chartered to research, document, preserve and restore the historical, archaeological, ethnographic and cultural assets of Antalya and its surrounding regions. Furthermore, it supports scientific studies and researches on these subjects and on the interpretation of relations in the Mediterranean basin.
The Institute's extensive library resources and archives are open to all local and foreign researchers and students. Furthermore, it organizes a great many national and international conferences, symposia, colloquia and other scientific and cultural activities.
There is also a private ceramics collection in Kaleici Museum, exhibiting 300 ceramics from Canakkale region. This is considered as ne of the most important collections of the world.
Separately, there is a ceramic Turkey map in the museum which was prepared to be bestowed to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1926. However, the master could not bestow the map to Ataturk. Suna-Inan Kirac bought it afterwards and included it to the works of art in the museum.
MUSEUMS IN ALANYA
Archeology Museum founded in 1967 in Alanya attract local and foreign tourists with the archeological and ethnographic works of art. A bronze sculpture of Herakles is displayed in the museum.
A building constructed by Alaaddin Keykubat in 1226 to protect the shipyard and the port region is used as Kizilkule (Red Tower) Ethnography Museum. It is five storeyed, eight cornered and its height from the east side is 33m, and from the west side is 30 m.
HISTORY HIDDEN IN EVERY STEP: SIDE MUSEUM
The museum in Side is in the ancient Agora Bath belonging to the Roman Period. Side Museum was established after restoration of the ancient Agora Bath in 1960-61. This is among the first museums donated to the state.
Monuments, epigraphs, reliefs, sarcophagus, portraits and coins belonging to the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods are on display in the museum.
BURDUR MUSEUM
Burdur Museum displays 9,000 year-old history with thousands of artifacts unearthed in excavations in the worldly famous ancient cities.
The ancient monuments in Burdur and its environs were formerly collected and conserved in the library building, which is the only remaining building of Bulguroglu (Pirgulzade) School and thus the first steps towards the constituting of the museum were taken. The opening ceremony of the exhibition halls of Burdur Museum was held in 1969.
Today, Burdur Museum is among the first 10 - 15 museums of our country with its 60,000 monuments. The museum, which is very rich in monuments, is insufficient in terms of place.
Burdur represents the common features of Mediterranean, Aegean and Central Anatolian civilizations in terms of its location. The findings in Burdur Museum are the historical and cultural treasury of a past of 9000 years, since BC 7000 to date.
In 2006, the museum was renovated and enlarged to house the numerous large sculptural pieces found at Sagalassos.
The monuments in the Small Monuments Hall are arranged in chronological order. Among the monuments exhibited in this hall, there are monuments of Late Neolithic, Early and Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze ages found in excavations carried out in Hacilar - Kurucay - Hoyucek tumuli, earthenware, painted and unpainted vessels of the Iron Age and of Prygian, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods, Goddess figurines, stone and bronze axes and other tools, ornaments, cosmetic material, phyton vessels, seals and cylindrical stamps representing ownership and legal concepts, oil - lamps and their moulds, metal god figurines, bronze athlete statues, coins, and beautiful statue findings and other small findings discovered in excavations at the ancient city of Sagalassos.
ISPARTA MUSEUM SHEDS LIGHT TO HISTORY
Isparta Museum attracts attention with its archeology, ethnography, and carpet weaving works of art in its four exhibition halls.
Presents to dead people are among the works of art that draw the most attention. The cubic sarcophagus, unearthed during the excavations in Harmanoren village in Atabey town in Isparta at the end of 1980s, shows burial ceremony of people centuries years ago.
Ornaments and presents are left near dead people who were put into the graves with their knees and elbows pulled to their belly. Vase, earthenware water jug, and jewellery are among the ornaments left as presents.
ADANA
Works of art exhibited in Archeology, Ethnography and Misis Mosaic museums mirror the history of Cukurova that hosted various civilizations with its fertile soils.
Adana Archeology Museum, established in 1924, is one of the oldest 10 museums of Turkey. More than 17,000 archeological artifacts and 26, 547 coins on display in the museum. The artifacts were mostly discovered from Gozlukule Tarsus; Yumuktepe, Mersin; Sirkeli, Ceyhan and Misis, Yuregir.
At the museum entrance there is a Gate Lion from the Hittite period and two Augustus Statues from Silifke / Tasucu and Uzunburc. The exhibited material includes sarcophagi with rich garland decorations, jugs, catapult shots, inscriptions, altars and various architectural elements.
In the Hall of Chronological Objects, a large variety of findings are exhibited from the very early ages to the Ottoman period, including offerings, pottery, oil lamps, gods, goddesses and animal figurines. The Mosaic of Orpheus Playing the Lyre, discovered at Adana / Tepebag, is also in this hall.
Hall of Regional Objects exhibits material from the Adana museum's own collection obtained from the excavations and through purchases. Glass object samples with rich forms, Seljuk tiles and seals from various civilizations are also displayed.
ETHNOGRAPHY MUSEUM
Doors of the Ethnography Museum of Adana are closed to the visitors for sometime as it is under restoration.
There are 2,775 ethnographic works of art in the museum. Inscriptions and tomb stones in "kufi", "sulus" and "nezih" calligraphy are exhibited in the garden.
In the southern and northern sections, female and male tomb stones in the Ottoman tradition from the 17th century are displayed including plain, coin headed, mecidiye type stones as well as stones with crowns shaped as fez, turban or in the baroque style. Tomb stones of some prominent people such as the Governor of Adana, Suleyman Pasazade Ahmet Pasha, the Local Administrator of Karaisali, Hasan Fevzi Bey, the Military Governor of Adana, Miratizade Ibrahim Bey, the Treasure of Adana, Mustafa Bey of Sophia, the Chief Forest Inspector Akif Efendi can be found among the collection.
The ethnography works of art reflect the livings of the tribes that reigned in the Toros Mountain in the past.
MISIS MOSAICS AND ATATURK MUSEUM
Prof. Theodor Bossert and Dr. Ludwig Buddle from the German archeology delegation, carrying out excavation in Missis mound, unearthed floor mosaics in 1956. The floor mosaics are on display in Misis Mosaic Museum, 26 km to the east of Adana.
ATATURK MUSEUM
The museum building located on Ceyhan Street, is one of the traditional Adana houses built in the 19th century. It is a two storey stone building with projections, and a hip roof.
Ataturk and his wife were guests at this house which belongs to Suphi Pasha from the Ramazanogullari Dynasty, during his Adana visit of 15 March 1923.
The building was expropriated with the initiative of Ataturk Science and Culture Museum Protection and Support Association and with leadership of the then Commander of the armed forces in Adana, Bedreddin Demirel and was restored and started to function as a museum in 1981 under the Museum Directorate. March 15, the day of Atatürk's arrival in Adana is celebrated each year with an official ceremony held at this building.
On the Hall, there is a wax statue of Ataturk. The house also exhibits bounded volumes of local newspapers which were published during and following the Independence War, as well as weapons and belongings of Ataturk.
MERSIN MUSEUM IS ALMOST AN OPEN AIR MUSEUM
Mersin Museum, which is next to Cumhuriyet Square, takes the visitors to a small voyage with the stone opuses belonging to various periods. The museum building 
was established between 1944-1945.
There are three main halls in the museum including.
Stone opuses are exhibited in the first hall. The opuses belonging to the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Ancient Bronze Periods that are found in Yumuktepe and Gozlukule excavations that are among the most ancient residence centres of Anatolia, are exhibited in the second hall. These are double handled drink pots, double, triple, quadruple basket handled cup shaped pots, beak rimmed earthenware water jugs, various painted pots. Furthermore, cooked earthenware pottery, glass and bronze opuses belonging to the Ancient Bronze Age, Urartu Period, Classical, Hellenistic, Rome and Byzantine periods are exhibited in chronological order. Bronze, silver and golden coins belonging to the Classical, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods and Küstüllü Byzantine treasure are exhibited in the same hall.
In the third hole on the upper floor, where there are ethnographic opuses, opuses such as silver ornamental goods, chaplets, embroidered clothes, towels, wooden and metal goods, kilims, various guns, etc are exhibited.
MERSIN ATATURK HOUSE
The building is situated in the focal point of the city, in one of the most important and busy avenues of Mersin, the "Ataturk Avenue". This building was built as a residence for German consul Herr Christman for his marriage in 1891 with a lady of the Mavromati family from Mersin.
The building, turned into "Ataturk House" during a visit of the Great Leader and his wife Latife to this country, is now used as museum.
On the ground floor of the building, there are the photographs and 22 goods belonging to the Great Leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
WORLD'S SECOND BIGGEST MOSAIC MUSEUM IS IN HATAY
Hatay which hosted many civilizations in history, has the second richest mosaic museum of the world.
Construction of Hatay Archaeological Museum was completed in 1939 and it was opened to visit in 1948.
The museum, having 8 halls, displays works of art belonging to the periods of the Hittites, Assyrians, Urartians, and Romans, which were unearted in excavations carried out in Antakya, Samandag and Tarsus.
There are 35,000 works of art in the museum, but only 3,000 of them are on display.
