Archaeology: Turkey’s largest museum complex to open soon

ANSAmed (Italy)

13 September 2013, Ankara

A big project in the field of culture and tourism is being realized in the southeastern Turkish province of Sanliurfa, the main city of which is regarded as the world’s oldest city due to the « temple center » and the remains in Gobeklitepe. When finished, the Haleplibahce Museum Complex, which will include an archaeology park and mosaic museums over an area of nearly 200,000 square meters, will be the largest such complex in Turkey as Anadolu Agency reports.

The Warrior Amazon Women mosaics, which were unearthed a few years ago during the foundation excavation of a themed park project and are estimated to date back to the 5th and 6th century A.D., caused a stir in the archaeology community. The mosaics were located in the grounds of an official’s palace in the Roman period and experts classified these mosaics as among the world’s most valuable. The Haleplibahce project was changed after the discovery over fears that the findings could be damaged during the transportation. The new project, the Haleplibahce Museum Complex, was initiated and accelerated with an order from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

Sanliurfa Museum Director Muslum Ercan said the Haleplibahce Museum Complex was seen as one of the most prestigious projects realized by the Culture and Tourism Ministry. He said that works were almost completed, adding that 80% of the outer faade of the complex had been finished and installments in the inner space would be finished soon. « We are now focusing on merchandizing works, » he said. Ercan said they would start carrying artworks to the museum in three months. « Visitors who want to come to this museum need to spare a lot of time. The complex is the largest one in Turkey in terms of its size. Turkey does not have any other museum covering an area of 200,000 square-meters. A 30,000 square meter area of this huge space is the closed area of the archaeology museum, » he said.