The Istanbul Archaeology Museum

Last week, Jenny, Cyrus, Kit and I went once again

to the European side of Istanbul to visit the Istanbul

Museum of Archaeology. It is known as one of the

best in the world. I forgot my camera this day and

was very unhappy about it. So I pulled some pictures

from the internet to at least have a history noted about

this day.

Entrance to the museum

This doesn't show the entire building, but just one

of the front step entrances. This is a huge museum

that contains many old artifacts.

One item that we had read about was the Alexander

Sarcophagus. We had read about it and thought that

this was the burial coffin of Alexander the Great. Once

we saw it, we admired the beautiful carvings on the

sides. Then we read the sign that said that some King

was actually buried in the coffin! For many years they

thought that it was Alexander the Great, but that was

a mistake. The carvings around the outside depict

many battles of Alexander, therefore, the reason for

the mistake.

There were many old artifacts outside the museum.

This one is a Christian sarcophagus.

The museum also has a Children's Museum. This

replica of The Trojan Horse stands at the entrance.

Troy, where the epic occurs, is located not too far

from Istanbul. It is quite a historical area which is

still under excavation. It is too far for us to visit,

but maybe someday!

This is the head sarcophagus of Sidonian King Tabnit,

It had previously belonged to an Egyptian General.

I guess that they reused these things long ago?????

The skeleton of King Tabnit! Yes, this was on display

and we really saw it. Weird for us, but I guess that

Dr. Brennan on the TV show "Bones" would love it!

This is a kiosk of tiled artifacts from Sultan Mehmet

the Conqueror, 1472. We didn't go inside, but I'm sure

that all of the tiles were beautiful.

This museum also had a floor totally devoted to artifacts

discovered at Troy during various periods of time. All

of these old, historical relics were impressive.