Istanbul Archeology Museums
Istanbul Archeology Museums is a complex museum consisting of three main units. Archeology Museum, Museum of Ancient Oriental Works and Tiled Kiosk Museum. In the collections of Istanbul Archeology Museums, Turkey's first museum, there are nearly one million artifacts from various cultures brought from the imperial lands.
The traces of the interest in collecting historical artifacts in the Ottoman Empire date back to the period of Mehmet the Conqueror, but the institutional emergence of museology coincided with the establishment of the Istanbul Archeology Museums in 1869 as the 'Museum-i Hümayun', that is, the Imperial Museum. The Museum-I Humayun, which consists of archaeological artifacts collected in the Hagia Eirene Church until that day, forms the basis of the Istanbul Archeology Museums. The Tiled Kiosk, which was built during the reign of Mehmet the Conqueror, was turned into a museum after Hagia Irene was inadequate. Tiled Kiosk, which is still affiliated to the Istanbul Archeology Museums, was restored and opened to visitors in 1880.
