Museums in Turkey
857 museums in 324 cities.
Turkey sits at the crossroads of civilisations, and its museums reflect layers of Hittite, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman heritage. Istanbul dominates, with Topkapi Palace (the Ottoman sultans' residence for nearly 400 years), Hagia Sophia (which has served as cathedral, mosque, museum and mosque again) and the Istanbul Archaeological Museums housing one of the world's great antiquities collections. The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara provides the finest survey of pre-classical Anatolian cultures, while Ephesus and the surrounding archaeological sites in Selcuk preserve one of the best-documented Roman cities in the Mediterranean. Cappadocia's open-air museums — Byzantine rock-cut churches with vivid frescoes — offer an experience found nowhere else on earth. Turkey's museum infrastructure has expanded significantly in recent years, with modern visitor centres and multilingual interpretation now standard at major sites.
Key institutions: Topkapi Palace Museum (Istanbul), Hagia Sophia (Istanbul), Museum of Anatolian Civilizations (Ankara), Istanbul Archaeological Museums, Goreme Open Air Museum (Cappadocia)
Top 50 Museums in Turkey
Ranked by editorial composite
All museums by city
