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The Istanbul Archaeological Museums, a museum affiliated towards the Secretary of state for Culture and Tourism, is found in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet neighborhood, around the Osman Hamdi Bey slope connecting the Gülhane Park while using Topkapı Palace. Its name is plural, as there are three different museums within the same administration: The Archaeological Museum, the ancient Orient Museum (Eski Şark Eserleri Müzesi) and Tiled Kiosk Museum (Çinili Köşk Müzesi).

• Throughout an Istanbul Archaeological Museums tour, it is possible to visit the extraordinarily beautiful garden from the museum and also the three different buildings inside this garden.
• The İstanbul Archaeological Museums, that is housing various artifacts from civilizations that had left their traces to different periods of the history, is one of the 10 most important world-class museums designed and used as a museum building. Additionally, it’s the first institution in Turkey arranged as a museum. Besides its spectacular collections, the architectural facets of its buildings and its garden are of historical and natural importance.
• The İstanbul Archaeological Museums is welcoming all visitors who wish to make a journey in the corridors of the background and to trace the remains of ancient civilizations.

The Istanbul Archaeology Museum is housed in three buildings just inside the first court of Topkapi Palace and includes the Museum of the Ancient Orient. The museum has an excellent collection of Greek and Roman artifacts, including finds from Ephesus and Troy.

Collections of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum

The Istanbul Archaeological Museum houses more than one million objects, the most extraordinary of which are the sarcophagi that date back as far as the 4th century BC. The museum excels, however, in its rich chronological assortment of locally found artifacts that shed light on the origins and good reputation for the city.

Close to the entrance is a statue of a lion representing the only piece saved from the clutches of British archaeologists from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

On the upper floor of the building there are small stone works, pans and pots, small terracotta statues, 800,000 Ottoman coins, seals, decorations, and medals, and a library with 70,000 books.

In the halls to the left is a assortment of sarcophagi found at Sidon (ancient Syria) representing various architectural styles influenced by outside cultures including Egypt, Phoenicia, and Lycia. The most famous is the Alexander Sarcophagus, covered with astonishingly advanced carvings of battles and also the life of Alexander the Great, discovered in 1887 and once believed to happen to be that of the emperor himself (it was actually Sidonian King Abdalonymos).

Found in the same necropolis at Sidon is the stunningly preserved Sarcophagus of the Crying Women, with 18 intricately carved panels showing figures of women in extreme states of mourning.

On the mezzanine level is the exhibit “Istanbul With the Ages,” a rich and well-presented exhibit that won the museum the Council of Europe Museum Award in 1993. To put the exhibit into perspective, the curators have provided maps, plans, and drawings to illustrate the archaeological findings, displayed thematically, which range from prehistoric artifacts found west of Istanbul to 15th-century Byzantine works of art.

The recovered snake’s head from the Serpentine Column in the Hippodrome is on display, as is the 14th-century bell in the Galata Tower. The upper two levels house the Troy exhibit and displays on the evolution of Anatolia within the centuries, as well as sculptures from Cyprus, Syria, and Palestine.

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The newly renovated and reopened Museum of the Ancient Orient is an exceptionally rich collection of artifacts from the earliest civilizations of Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Arab continent. The tour starts with pre-Islamic divinities and idols obtained from the courtyard of the Al-Ula temple, along with artifacts showing ancient Aramaic inscriptions and a small assortment of Egyptian antiquities.

Uncovered in the region of Mesopotamia and on display is an obelisk of Adad-Nirari III inscribed with cuneiform characters. Of particular significance is a series of colored mosaic panels showing animal reliefs of bulls and dragons with serpents’ heads in the monumental Gate of Ishtar, built by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylonia.

A pictorial representation on a Sumerian devotional basin of ladies carrying pitchers of water whose contents are filling an underground source relates to the ancient Mesopotamian belief that the world was surrounded by water, a belief which has provoked questions over the origins from the biblical Great Flood.

Without a penny dating newer than the 1st century AD, pretty much everything here has enormous significance. But two of the highlights are often the fragments of the 13-century BC sphinx in the Yarkapi Gate at Hattusas and something of the three known tablets from the Treaty of Kadesh, the oldest recorded peace treaty signed between Ramses II and the Hittites in the 13th-century BC inscribed in Akkadian, the international language of the era. (Another tablet is in the Staatliche Museum in Berlin.)

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Troy, Troy wars images, Çanakkale, Horse Of Troy, Truva

Troy is a city which existed over 4.000 years and known as the center of ancient civilizations. For several years people thought that it was the city mentioned only in the tales and never existed until it was initially based in the 19th century.

Troy (Truva in Turkish) is located in Hisarlik near Canakkale province where the remains of this once-great city can be visited.What was left are the remains of the destruction of Schliemann, the famous German archaeologist or a treasure hunter as some people call him.

Today, an foreign team of German and American archaeologists bring the Troy of the Bronze Age back to life under a sponsored project by Daimler – Benz, and another Turkish team is at law wars with Russia and Germany to get back the stolen Trojan treasures.

Troy appeared in Greek and Latin literature. Homer first mentioned story of Troy in Iliad and Odyssey. Later, it became the most popular subject in Greek drama. The book of Virgil’s Aeneid contains the best known account of the sack of Troy. In addition, there are untrue stories under the names of Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius.

In the Bronze age, Troy had a great power because of its strategic location between Europe and Asia. In the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC Troy was a cultural center. After the Trojan War, the city was abandoned from 1100 to 700 BC. About 700 BC Greek settlers began to occupy the Troas region, Troy was resettled and named as Ilion. Alexander the Great ruled the area around the 4th century BC.

After Romans captured Troy in 85 BC, it was restored partially by Roman general Sulla and named as New Ilium. Through the Byzantine rule, Troy lost its importance.

The ruins of Troy were first found by Charles McLaren in 1822. The German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated Troy from 1870 to 1890. His theft of treasure from Troy and his damage to the site will be always remembered in Turkish archaeological history. Wilhelm Dorpfeld followed to excavate Troy after Schliemann. Today, a new German team ‘s still working to rebuild Troy ruins by using new advanced technologies since 1988.

There are nine levels at Troy; Troy I to V relates roughly with early Bronze Age (3000 to 1900 BC). Its inhabitants were known as Trojans in this period. Troy VI and VII were built in the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Troy VIII to IX belongs to Hellenistic and Roman Ilion (Latin Ilium). Troy was destroyed many times and rebuilt each time.

Troy is one of the most famous cities in the history, remembering us Hector, Achilles and Achaean Greeks, the sake of Helen, Paris, Agamemnon and Priam. Its story is written in every language, Trojan heroes, Achilles’ heel and Odyssey became figures in poems. From Alexander the Great to Lord Byron, many important figures of the history stood on the site of the great heroes. However, people always wondered whether the Trojan War happened or not, or if there was really a wooden horse or not.

Trojan War

The tale of Troy is told by Homer with the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer was drawing on a vast cycle of stories about Trojan War. The Iliad features a few weeks in the tenth year of the war.

Reported by Greek sources, Troy stood near the Dardanelles. There was clearly no dispute about its location in the story that we are all familiar: the Dardanelles, the islands of Imbros, Samothrace and little Tenedos, Mount Ida to the south east, the plain and the river Scamander.

It was an ancient city an its inhabitants were known as Teucrians or Dardanians but also as Trojans or Ilians which got this name from eponymous heroes, Tros and his uncle Ilus. In other source mentioned that Troy and Ilius were two separate places but Homer insists on using these two names for Troy.

On the mainland of Greece at that time, the most powerful king was Agamemnon. His residence was at Mycenae. At that time, the inhabitants of Greece called themselves as Arhaians, Danaans, or Argiues not Greeks or Hellenes. Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndareus of Sparta and sister to Helen. Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world, she had married with Agamemnon’s brother Menelaos who became king in Lakonia. Two brothers had a great power in southern Greece.

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On the other hand, in Troy Laemedon was the king of Ilios, the son of Ilus who had given his name to Troy. Laemedon tried to cheat the gods of their rewards. He would not give up the immortal snow – white horses sent by Herakles (Hercules). But Herakles sailed to the Troad (Troy), attacked, and captured the city.

Laemedon and his sons were killed except the youngest, Podarces, who was released and took a new name, Priam, as a young king of Troy and the city was restored again.

Priam ruled over Troy successfully for three generations. He had fifty sons and twelve daughters. His eldest son was the great warrior Hector. And one of his sons, Paris, was the important figure in Troy’s History.

The famous myth tells; Eris -strife- had thrown down a golden apple ‘for the fairest’ at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and Zeus couldn’t decide between his wife Hera, Athena (goddess of wisdom), and Aphrodite (goddess of love). The goddesses were led to the Trojan Mount Ida where Priam’s most handsome son Paris lived. Hera offered him the lordship of all Asia; Athena the victory in war and wisdom beyond any other man; Aphrodite the most beautiful woman in the world. As usual, men being men, stories being stories, Paris gave the apple to Helen.

Paris went to Sparta to give the apple to Helen. Menelaus, husband of Helen, arranged a feast for him. When Menelaus left there to visit the king of Knossos, Helen and Paris ran away and sailed to Troy. But there is some contradiction in this part, some source says that Paris carried of Helen by force and plundered elsewhere in the Aegean sea before time for Troy.

When Menelaus heard how it happened, he begged his brother Agamemnon to take revenge. The king sent envoys to Troy to demand Helen’s restitution but envoys came back with empty hands. Then Menelaus gathered an army. In the story, great heroes were Achilles, Odysseus (Ulysses) and Ajax. At Aulis, the army seers read the signs that Troy would fall in the tenth year of the war.

Then Menelaus army sailed to Asia Minor and attacked Teuthrania in Mysia opposite of Lesbos, but they had mistaken depending on Trojan territory and the army were beaten at the mouth of the Caicus river and driven back to their ship by Telephus, king of Mysia and ally of Troy.

The Greeks assembled again at Aulis but they were wind bound and unable to sail. Wings, hunger, evil harborage, crazing men, routing ships and cables stopped the Greek army, because Agamemnon had offended Artemis and his most beautiful daughter had to be sacrificed to change the fortune.

After the sacrification of Iphigenia, the army reached first Lesbos, then Tenedos which is an island visible from Troy. The islands were plundered. At the end, Greek army was at the bay of Troy. The Trojans also had allies from several places in Asia Minor and Thrace. The war took 10 years. In the tenth year of the war, the Greeks stopped raiding Asia Minor and attacked Troy. In a part of Homer’s Iliad, Hector falls in a single combat with Achilles, the best Greek warrior, because he killed Patroclus, Achilles’ best friend. The fight ended with the death of Hector.

Achilles sacrificed twelve noble Trojan captives over Hector’s funeral. After the death of Trojan ally Memnon in a battle at the Scaeon gate, Paris hit Achilles in his heel (the famous ‘Achilles heel’ comes from here), the only place where Achilles was vulnerable. And the greatest of all Greek heroes was burned and his ashes buried on a hill overlooking the Hellespont. Ajax committed suicide with the silver sword which had been given to him by Hector as a mark of respect. Somehow Priam’s son Paris was killed by Philoktetes, but the Trojans still refused to give Helen up.

The Greeks had a plan; they built a wooden horse in order to get access to the city. Well armed men, among them Odysseus of Ithaca and Menelaus, were hidden in it. The horse was left as a thank to Athena and the Greeks burned their camps and sailed as if they had given up.

Trojans found the horse and pulled the horse into the city. At midnight, Greek soldiers jumped down from horse and opened the gates by killing the guards. The Greeks entered into the city and killed all Trojans. After the Greek massacre, none of the males were left alive in the city. Neoptolemus killed old Priam on the threshold of his royal house. The male children of Trojan heroes were slaughtered, Hectors little boy was thrown from the walls. Menelaus decided to kill Helen but in front of her beauty he gave up. After plundering and burning the city, the Greeks left Troy.

But this victory brought only more suffering to the Greeks. They were split up by storms and lost their way to return. Agamemnon, the king of Greeks was killed by his wife. Philoktetos was expelled from Thessaly by rebels.

Another Article about Trojan Wars

Other important sites in the regions near here:

Pergamum -Pergamom – Bergama

Ephesus

Dydma

Hierapolis – Pamukkale

Underwater City of Neopolis

Aphrodisias Temple of Aphrodite

Hattusa – Hattusas

Ancient Greek Theatre of Myra

Bodrum Castle and Underwater Museum

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