New Archaeological Museum in Antalya

The Archaeological Museum in Antalya has been closed to visitors as of 16 July 2025. A recent seismic analysis has revealed that the existing building is a high-risk structure. This led the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to take drastic measures to tear down the existing building and replace it with a new earthquake-resistant construction. 

[The project image of the new Antalya Archaeology Museum, which will be built

on the same site. (IHA Photo)]

It must have been a gigantic task to pack and remove the extensive collection of statues, reliefs, sarcophagi, coins, and other artifacts to their temporary storage units on the premises. 

If all goes according to plan, the Museum is expected to reopen by the end of 2026 with larger exhibition space and state-of-the-art conservation facilities. An ambitious deadline! 

The museum’s conservation and restoration work will not be interrupted and will continue elsewhere on the property. 

This kind of extensive restoration and modernization project is not limited to Antalya, though. Another 37 museums affiliated with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Turkey will shut down. 

The country is prone to earthquakes, and sooner or later, the structures show signs of serious degradation. The most recent example is the strong earthquake of February 2023 that devastated so many buildings in southeastern Turkey and damaged several museums as well. 

Aging infrastructure is another issue impacting several major institutions such as the Archaeological Museums of Istanbul, the Fethiye Museum in Mugla, the Museum of Aphrodisias in Aydin, and the Archaeology Museum of Gaziantep. In central Anatolia, the Museums of Nevsehir, Urgup, and Nigde are all undergoing reinforcement work. Last but not least, redesigning the layout and display of the exhibited artworks is another issue. 

I am sharing hereafter a list of the 37 museums involved, including their dates of closure and reasons for repair as published in Türkiye Today.

List of closed museums in Türkiye   (As of July 2025)

1.           Gaziantep Archaeology Museum
(Maintenance and Repair – Feb. 6, 2023)

2.           Hatay Archaeology Museum
(Maintenance and Repair – Feb. 6, 2023)

3.           Kilis Alaeddin Yavasca Museum
(Concert Hall – Restoration – Feb. 6, 2023)

4.           Malatya Museum
(Maintenance and Repair – Feb. 6, 2023)

5.           Malatya Beskonaklar Ethnography Museum
(Maintenance and Repair – Feb. 6, 2023)

6.           Mugla Fethiye Museum
(Structural Reinforcement – March 4, 2023)

7.           Istanbul Great Palace Mosaics Museum
(Restoration – April 9, 2023)

8.           Istanbul Tiled Kiosk Museum (Cinili Kosk)
(Exhibition and Layout Renewal – April 19, 2023)

9.           Mugla Museum
(Reinforcement and Restoration – June 22, 2023)

10.        Eregli Museum
(Reinforcement – July 5, 2023)

11.        Nevsehir Museum
(Reinforcement – Aug. 31, 2023)

12.        Bitlis Ethnography Museum
(Maintenance and Repair – Sept. 20, 2023)

13.        Yozgat Museum
(Maintenance and Repair – Dec. 11, 2023)

14.        Nigde Museum
(Reinforcement – Dec. 11, 2023)

15.        Urgup Museum
(Reinforcement – Dec. 11, 2023)

16.        Aphrodisias Museum
(Reinforcement – Jan.11, 2024)

17.        Konuralp Museum
(Reinforcement – Jan. 11, 2024)

18.        Kutahya Museum
(New Building Construction – Feb. 2, 2024)

19.        Galata Mevlevihane Museum
(Maintenance and Repair – May 13, 2024)

20.        Hazeranlar Mansion (Amasya)
(Restoration & Exhibition Arrangement – Nov. 11, 2024)

21.        Lycia Civilizations Museum (Demre, Antalya)
(Exhibition, Layout & Landscaping — Feb 17, 2025)

22.        Istanbul Archaeological Museums
(Classical Building Ground Floor, Annex, and North Wing—Reinforcement/Restoration – April 19, 2023)

23.        Mersin Anamur Museum
(General Reinforcement – Dec. 27, 2012)

24.        Isparta Museum
(Repair & Landscaping – Aug. 28, 2014)

25.        Elazig Museum
(Reinforcement – Aug. 18, 2016)

26.        Diyarbakir Silvan Ataturk House Museum
(General Repair – Dec. 24, 2018)

27.        Bursa Yenisehir Semaki House Museum
(Restoration – Dec. 16, 2019)

28.        Izmir Tire Museum
(Reinforcement – June 22, 2020)

29.        Istanbul Museum of the Ancient Orient (Eski Sark Eserleri Muzesi)
(Exhibition and Layout Renewal – May 12, 2022)

30.        Adana Suleyman Tower (Suleyman Kulesi)
(Landscaping – May 26, 2022)

31.        Kastamonu Liva Pasha Mansion Ethnography Museum
(Restoration – Oct. 20, 2022)

32.        Adiyaman Museum
(Maintenance/Repair – Feb. 6, 2023)

33.        Kars Museum (Ethnographic Hall)
(Exhibition Preparation – March 4, 2025)

34.        Fethiye Museum (Second Entry)
(Restoration – April 5, 2025)

35.        Antalya Museum
(New Building Construction & Collection Relocation – July 16, 2025)

36.        Adnan Menderes Democracy Museum
(Maintenance and Repair – July 7, 2025)

37.                Ahlat Museum
(Landscaping – July 21, 2025)

[Mosaic from the Temple of Apollo, Letoon

Original at the Museum of Fethiye]

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has not provided specific reopening dates for most of these institutions. Instead, they have left it rather vague, using words such as “until the completion of works”.

Rare testimonies from the Palace of Pergamon

Pergamon made a clear statement to take a leading position in the Hellenistic world in which the rulers attracted the best artists, architects, and philosophers. 

The Palace of Pergamon and its adjacent rooms must have been a sight for sore eyes considering the magnificence and action displayed on the famous Altar of Zeus, whose remains have been moved to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. 

On most maps of Pergamon, we find five consecutive rooms initially labeled as Palaces in their own right. Recent studies have established that the so-called Palace V was the main building used for official purposes. The other “palaces” were rooms for the Royal family and the guests, storage rooms, and arsenals. 

The official rooms with their niches and patios would be filled with elegant statues, statuettes, vessels, and other decorative items created by the best artists from Hellenistic times commissioned by the Attalid kings (see: The Attalids, rulers of Pergamon). 

From the reign of Attalus I, 241 to 197 BC, the most striking examples are the statues of the Dying Gaul and the man and woman known as the Galatian Suicide. Both pieces were taken to Rome to adorn the Gardens of Caesar. Also at the instigation of Attalus I, a new architectural feature appeared, the Pergamene Capital (see: About Greek/Roman columns and capitals). There must be proof that at least bits of these capitals are left in situ but I have not found any. I discovered my first examples in North Africa and in particular in Leptis Magna, the city built by Septimius Severus in the 2^nd century AD. 

The reigns of Eumenes II and Attalus II in the 2^nd century BC left us with only a handful of artworks that survived the ravages of time. A rare treasure found in the dining room of Palace V with the Hephaistion mosaic is the dancer or light carrier lady. She is 1.20 meters tall and made of white translucent marble. Her right hand which has not survived is raised and her left hand reaches downwards towards her dress. This elegant beauty has been transferred to the Altes Museum of Berlin. Another lady dancer has apparently been moved to the Archaeological Museum of Izmir and the only available picture is on the site of Livius. 

More telling is the colorful mosaic of a parakeet now at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin (see: The beauty of Alexandrine mosaics) retrieved from one of the two dining rooms of the Palace. Here, another remarkable mosaic was discovered that carried the signature of the artist. His name is Hephaistion, which has nothing to do with Alexander’s friend who lived two centuries earlier. This artist very creatively wrote his name on a label that seemed to be stuck to the floor with sealing wax at its corners, except one corner which was already lifted up. The full inscription can be translated as "Hephaistion made it". 

The balance of the finds in and around the Royal Palace is very meager considering the grandeur and wealth accumulated by the Attalid Kings of Pergamon (see: The Attalids, rulers of Pergamon). It is unclear whether these premises have been thoroughly excavated or if more work remains to be done. I like to believe the latest.

Ancient harbor city discovered near Dikili, Turkey

Some excavations are carried out on sites known from antiquity, other digs get started after an accidental discovery. This is the case for the city of Atarneus situated on Turkey’s west coast. A 39-year-old diver noticed columns and column drums as he was diving off the coast of Dikili, some 120 km north of Izmir. 

[Picture from The Hurriyet Daily News]

Archaeologists examining the site concluded that said columns belonged to the ancient city of Atarneus founded by the Akalis, of whom close to nothing is known. 

Atarneus is, however, linked to Aristotle as Proxenus of Atarneus cared for the young Aristotle after his father died. While working at the Academy of Athens, Aristotle befriended a certain Hermias, who became the king of Atarneus. When the philosopher left Athens at the death of Plato, he stayed with Hermias and eventually married his daughter or niece, Pythia. 

The city reached its peak in the 4^th century BC under Hermias ruling over the area spreading from Atarneus to Assos further north. It ceased to exist in the 1^st century BC, apparently following the outbreak of some unspecified epidemic although tectonic movements cannot be excluded. 

Hopefully, further excavations will be started to learn more about the city’s existence and destruction. After all, it blossomed in the days of Alexander the Great meaning that he must have known the existence of this city!

Importance of the Meander River (western Turkey)

The River Meander in Asia Minor played an important role in the history of Miletus and Priene because its large alluvial deposits completely changed the landscape. Miletus in particular had four harbors on the Gulf of the Aegean Sea but with time they silted up and even the Island of Lade has been entirely integrated into the flat alluvial plain. (see: Miletus, Alexander’s first siege in Asia). Part of the water body still exists today but is cut off from the Aegean by the deposits and goes by the name of Lake Bafa.

[Picture from Hurriyet Daily News]

The Meander, modern Menderes River, is 550 km long and truly meanders through southwestern Turkey, irrigating farmlands and carrying industrial waste mainly from juice factories.

An alarming article has been published in the Hurryiet Daily News stating that the Meander is the country’s third most polluted river. For many years, experts have warned about this situation and are once again calling for an intervention in order to avoid environmental disasters since human health is in danger as well.

At its source near Dinar, the water is crystal clear and many species of birds and fish thrive but once it enters the province of Uşak where leather is treated on an industrial scale the water changes color, and the smell becomes unbearable the further you go downstream. There is a ban on fishing in these tainted waters and it has been established that some 1.5 million trout have been killed in the process. Entering the village of Balata, the water is as black as coal and smells of rotten animal corpses. At the mouth of the river, fish die by the thousands every week.

It is terribly sad that such a proud river from antiquity has been mistreated by successive civilizations making it unfit not only for agricultural irrigation but mainly for drinking. Fish and birds are dying but the rate of human death is much higher for those living along the river banks. A true disaster for mankind.

Over centuries, the Meander River has been the lifeline on which people could rely and that is no longer the case.

It appears that the Meander is not an isolated case. In another article, the Hurried Daily News reveals that 79% of Turkey’s freshwater bodies are polluted. That is particularly true for the western coast of Turkey (provinces of Muğla and Izmir) and also for Istanbul.

Excavation results from Magnesia-on-the-Meander

Magnesia-on-the Meander is one of the lesser-known archaeological sites in western Turkey. The Germans were the first to resurrect the site from its ashes, so to speak, at the end of the 19^th century. During those years, they managed to expose Magnesia’s theater and agora, the Temple of Artemis and the Temple of Zeus, and several other buildings. Excavations were resumed only in 1984 and again this year.

[Picture from Archaeology News Network. Credit: AA]

This time, six statues were recovered from the ruins of the Temple of Artemis, four female and one male, as the sixth one’s gender cannot be established. They were all found face-down in good condition. They will join ranks with fifty or so previously found statues that are now scattered over museums in Izmir and Aydin. The Archaeological Museum of Istanbul will get the best examples, as always, joining the existing collection of statues from the Temple of Artemis. The museum’s collection already possesses magnificent friezes from said temple and boasts an excellent scale reconstruction. Also exhibited there is a marble letter written by Darius I to the satrap of Asia Minor between 492 and 485 BC.

It is expected that future excavations will reveal more statues from this particular area.

Let’s not forget that Magnesia was one of the two dozen mints that were allowed to strike coins for Alexander the Great during his lifetime!

Izmir’s ancient city of Metropolis

For some reason (and I honestly don’t know how or why), I have missed all the excitement of the excavations of ancient Metropolis, located between the villages of Yeniköy and Özbek in Izmir. Work has been going on for many decades and has intensified in the past twenty years, so how could I have missed this?

Anyway, my first awareness of Metropolis, which means the City of the Mother Goddess, came with the recent news when a 100 m2 Roman Bath was discovered (see article published in the Hurriyet Daily News). The excavations revealed mosaics and statues of both Zeus and Tyche, the goddess of luck, as well as several gladiators. Although this bath seems to be smaller than those found previously, it included a sports area. Archaeologists think that it was built by Emperor Antoninus Pius in the 2nd century BC, but the aficionados will find many interesting remains of monumental buildings, like the theater, a Stoa lining the Agora, the Bouleuterion, the Gymnasium, and several other baths.

[picture from The Hurriyet Daily News]

To my surprise, the history of Metropolis goes back at least 5,000 years since ceramics belonging to the early and middle Bronze Age have been found. The Hittites also have left their traces in this city as their Kingdom of Arzawa had its capital at nearby Apasas, the later city of Ephesos. Some seals with hieroglyphic inscriptions similar to the Hittites support this theory. 

Archaeologists generally agree that Metropolis is an ancient Hellenistic city, protected by Artemis – a unique and mysterious dedication in Anatolia.

Little is known of Alexander’s passage, except that there was a spring at which side he slept and dreamed about refounding and rebuilding the city! Well, we know how fond Alexander was of rebuilding old cities and founding new ones! In any case, Metropolis was a city of art, which reached its cultural and economic apogee under the rule of the King of Pergamon.

During the Roman occupation, Metropolis covered a rather large area. The economy did not come so much from farming and agriculture but mainly from trade as it was set on the road to Ephesos.

The lzmir Archaeological Museum is bursting at its seams with the huge amount of artifacts that have been removed from Metropolis. Another part of the treasures has found refuge in the Ephesus Museum, which is currently expanding.

High time to go back to that area for a more than close look!

My heart is bleeding for Allianoi

With the change of weblogs, I somehow lost track of Allianoi till I was looking for it the other day and couldn’t find it. Luckily, I still had the original texts on my tablets, and although the news is “passé” by now, I feel that it is never too late to draw attention to what has happened there and is still happening elsewhere in Turkey’s frenzy to build ever more dams. 

It was in October 2010 when I first read that the gorgeous site of Allianoi would be flooded in spite of all the pleas and contacts with "authorities" over the past three years or so. I couldn't believe my eyes, for this is no way to treat our heritage. It is like throwing away the bones of our ancestors. How dare we?

[Picture from the Art Newspaper]

For those who hear the name Allianoi for the first time, I owe some further explanation. Allianoi is located to the northeast of ancient Pergamon, in the vicinity of Izmir, and right in the middle of the Yortanlı Dam Reservoir Area.

Because of its hot springs, the place was known already in antiquity, but the big boom occurred under Roman rule. In the 2nd century AD, Allianoi was one of the largest thermal baths in that part of the Empire that attracted crowds from the nearby Asclepion in Pergamon as well as from more distant areas. In Byzantine times, most of Allianoi was taken down and the materials were reused elsewhere in the city, but the thermal Baths and the Nymphaeum, i.e., the most important buildings, continued to be used as they were. The Ottomans renamed the settlement Paşa Ilıcası (The Thermal Baths of the Pasha), but after that, Allianoi slumbered into oblivion, although the use of the hot spring continued. The nearby Roman bridge was also still used until recently as a connection on the road from Bergama and İvrindi.

The Romans were master builders, as we know. They built the Bath Complex on both sides of the Ilya Creek, and in order to control its flow, they diverted the water to run through a vaulted tunnel. The hot spring has a nearly ideal temperature of about 45-50˚C. The Roman baths, like all other buildings on the site, date from the 2nd century AD. The brave archaeologists have discovered and uncovered many of them, only to be unfortunately buried again. Allianoi counted at least four insulae, a beautiful Nymphaeum much like the one dedicated to Herodes Atticus in Olympia, Greece, a Propylon, an unknown Cult Building, and a so-called Connection Building, along with several streets and the bridge over the creek I mentioned above. Also, remains of a Byzantine Basilica from the 9th century measuring no less than 19 x 21 meters have been located. And yet, all these jewels will disappear forever!

It is quite frustrating to find out that everything on this planet has to make way for politics and money. The average lifespan of any dam is 80 years, I learned, and this one is calculated to last only for 50 years. Is it really worth being built? What will we do fifty years from now? Dismantle the barrage and excavate Allianoi again, at huge costs once more? Haven’t we learned anything from our past dam building? The irrigated lands remain fertile for a short time only, seven to ten years maximum. After that, the soil is highly alkaline, and crops are hardly worth the effort of planting. As always, when it comes to politics, nobody listens to the environmentalists, and nobody takes their analysis seriously. In this case, nobody listens to the archaeologists either.

But that is only one aspect of building a dam. Here at Allianoi, we are voluntarily burying our heritage. Old stones have to make way for new concrete, yet we forget that our concrete will not survive 2,500 years like this old city did. One would expect that enough damage has been done already to other locations, for instance at Zeugma, Turkey, a unique site at the frontier of the Roman Empire on the banks of the Euphrates River. Archaeologists were able to save a handful of gorgeous mosaics and some wall frescos that have found shelter at the Museum of Gaziantep, but they are taken out of their context, and the proud city no longer awaits our embrace.

What will it take to stop this madness of building dams that, in the end, only scar and deplete the land? Water is vital to our life, I agree, but barrages are not the one and only solution, and their lifespan is not as eternal as governments all over the world want us to believe. What will happen in 50 or 100 years from now when this barrage and so many others give way? No water then, no crops, no dam, nobody to take responsibility, and sadly, no cities like Allianoi to be revived from underneath the sediments. 

Meanwhile, the site of Allianoi has been filled up with sand in an impossible dream that this measure will safeguard the precious remains of this two-thousand-year-old wealthy spa resort. The theory is that at the death of the dam, Allianoi can still be re-excavated, but what about the heavy layers of silt deposited on top of these remains? What damage will they have done?

A sad day for Allianoi. My heart is bleeding indeed…

Hopes may have been high still, but by March 2011, the dies were cast. A painful picture of a man sitting on the edge of the 2nd-century Roman bridge in the middle of a nearly flooded city publicized in the Christian Science Monitor says it all. In spite of the pleas and protests formulated by UNESCO, ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), and Europa Nostra (the pan-European Federation for Cultural Heritage), it didn’t take long before the entire site disappeared to the bottom of the new reservoir at the foot of the irrigation dam, covered beneath nearly 100 feet of water and silt. The Yortanli Dam is part of another huge hydro-engineering program aiming to keep up with the country's rapid economic development – that is at least what the officials say. 

The positive news is that archaeologists have been able to salvage some 11,000 artifacts after uncovering only about 20 percent of the site that is now lost forever – a rather poor consolation if any. The beautiful mosaic floors of this ancient health center, believed to be one of the largest and best preserved in the world, have disappeared once again. The Turkish government doesn’t seem to care or not to care enough; the race to double their power output by 2020 prevails over the preservation of the country’s and the world’s history.

The site was first filled with sand in an attempt to protect the ruins, although archaeologists disagree. In the last days of 2010, the flooding was set in motion. The water, according to the latest news of early 2011, has risen approximately 6 feet but will eventually reach 100 feet. I am not aware of a more recent update on the site if any. I could only trace this picture of the flooded area taken in June 2012 (from Alberti's Window). Regretfully, we’ll never know the full meaning and extent of Allianoi. Sadly, this is only one example among so many others. How many more will follow?

Click here for the complete article Dams power Turkey’s future, but drown its rich history by Alexander Christie-Miller, which also maps other natural and culturally threatened areas all over Turkey. National Geographic offers some meaningful pictures on this link.