Bust of Alexander the Great. Originating from old City of Pergamon in the 2nd century 8. C.
In 1876, a few decades after the foundation of the first official museum of Istanbul at the church of Aya Irini, the Çinili Köşk (the Lodge with Ceramics), which was the first building of The Topkapi Palace, was established as the Imperial Museum.
The Çinili Köşk soon proved insufficient for exhibiting the many collections of ancient art that kept growing rapidly, and the present museum was built in three stages between 1891 and 1908. The exterior of the museum building was designed in the general style of the two most important pieces of art it houses, namely the Alexander Sarcophagus and the Sarcophagus of Mourning Women.
Today, the Istanbul Archaeological Museum is among the most prominent museums of the world. The Ancient Near East Art section located in the courtyard of the Museum has in display many pieces discovered during excavations in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Anatolia and in the Çinili Köşk Turkish ceramics and china of different periods are exhibited.
The Museum features in its main halls an extremely rich collection of Greek-Roman-Byzantine sculpture, ceramics, coins and stone tablets. In addition, some inscriptions mentioned in the Bible (the Pentateuch) as well as the only remaining samples of the treasures of Troy and the monumental sarcophagi from the Royal Necropolis at Sidon are among the gems of the collection.
THE ALEXANDER SARCOPHAGUS:
The Alexander Sarcophagus is the most famous of the sarcop hagi discovered in 1887 by the painter-archaeologist Osman Hamdi Bey, then the director of the Museum, in the course of the excavations he had conducted personally at the Royal Necropolis of Sidon. Contrary to popular belief, this Sarcophagus was not made for Alexander the Great but was decorated with scenes depicting him. Archaeologists contend that this masterpiece was sculpted during the last quarter of the 4th century B.C.
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