Guide
The Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum, once known simply as the Şanlıurfa Archaeological Museum, grew out of a collection begun in 1948 and first opened in 1969. The new complex at Haleplibahçe, built on ground ten times larger than the old building, opened on 24 May 2015, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the culture and tourism minister of the day, Ömer Çelik, performing the opening. It stands almost opposite Balıklıgöl.
The complex takes in two museums: the Şanlıurfa Archaeological Museum, laid out over 24,000 square metres, and the Edessa Mosaic Museum over 33,000. The archaeological museum has fourteen main display halls and thirty-three areas given over to reconstructions. It is described as having the largest covered area and display hall in Türkiye, the greatest number of such reconstructions, and at 4.5 kilometres the longest visitor route in the country.
The museum shows finds from Şanlıurfa and its region and is of international importance for the Neolithic. Among its holdings are works from Göbeklitepe, the oldest temple known in the world, and from Nevalı Çori, along with the Balıklıgöl statue, the oldest known statue in the world. In all it holds 73,800 archaeological and ethnographic objects, running from the Palaeolithic through the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages.
The halls are arranged in order of time, beginning with surface finds of the Palaeolithic and their reconstructions, then life-size figures of the Neolithic, with buildings reproducing the architecture of each period and a practice excavation area suited to experimental archaeology.
The Edessa Mosaic Museum shows mosaics uncovered in excavations on that spot, along with the Orpheus mosaic, which was smuggled to the United States in the 1950s and brought back to Türkiye by the Ministry of Culture in 2012. The first depiction anywhere in mosaic of the Amazon warrior women is also displayed in the complex.
The complex further holds a multi-purpose visitor centre, an amphitheatre, gift counters, a recreation area and parking, open and covered, for 750 vehicles. It was named the best museum in Türkiye at the third Çukurova Tourism Awards in 2016.
