Museum of the Ancient Orient

The Museum of Ancient Orient houses an extensive collection. This collection consists of pieces from Mesopotamia and Anatolia's pre-Islamic times. The period when the artifacts were unearthed is largely the period until World War I began. The collected artifacts are brought to Istanbul, which was the capital of the Ottoman Empire for a long time. Museum of the Ancient Orient has sections such as Egyptian Artifacts, Pre-Islamic Artifacts, and Cuneiform Documents. These classifications allow the museum to be visited in a comfortable and orderly manner. Many Anatolian cultures are presented with their own special histories. Tablet Archive is among the most interesting sections of the museum. A total of 75,000 cuneiform materials, especially the exciting documents of very important agreements, are exhibited in the archive section here. The history of this special building, which hosts the museum, dates back to 1883. The museum building was first built as the Academy of Fine Arts with the efforts of Osman Hamdi Bey. It is said that this academy formed the foundations of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in the later periods. Likewise, Osman Hamdi Bey is a person who contributed to the Ottoman cultural life for a long time and pioneered in taking historical steps especially in the field of museology.

Alexander Vallaury is known as the architecture of the historical building. This person also built the classic building of the Archeology Museum to be opened in the following years. When the academy decided to continue its activities at another point after a while, this place was transferred to the museum directorate. It was during this period that Halil Edhem Bey, the museum director of the period, matured the first ideas about this museum. Although the museum was completed in 1935, it was evacuated during the war. With the major changes made in 1974, the museum regained its current appearance.