The best museums Anatolia And Cappadocia

The museum is in fact a valley of about thirty churches with magnificent frescos (^10th and ^11th centuries) and monasteries. The churches bear the names that people gave them in the region.

The Church of the Loop (Tokalı Kilise). It is the largest and most beautiful rock church in the region. It is divided into two parts, the old and the new. The frescoes of the old church (^10th century) represent scenes from the life of Christ in a primitive style. The murals of the new church, on a beautiful blue background (late ^10th and early ^11th century), are of great artistic value. Their long figures are among the masterpieces of Byzantine art.

The Apple Church (Elmalı Kilise). Its name is said to come from a beautifully preserved fresco of the Archangel Gabriel holding an apple. It has four columns. One can distinguish the Crucifixion, the Resurrection of Lazarus and the Deisis. On the central dome, Christ.

Saint Barbara (Azize Barbara kilese). Carved into the rock, it has a cross-shaped plan and two columns. Here, the painters favored red and ochre for the figures and motifs in a naïve style, such as the rooster symbolizing the denial of St. Peter, strange insects, sometimes interpreted as the devil, and stylized cypress trees. There is also a representation of Saint Barbara, the horsemen George and Theodore, and Mary.

The Church of the Serpent (Yılanlı Kilise). The church owes its name to the fresco depicting St. George and St. Theodore slaying the dragon. Note the painting of St. Basil and St. Thomas next to St. Onophrios provided with female breasts and a beard. Next to it is a refectory with a double apse. The seat dug into the wall was reserved for the superior of the convent. Also the kitchen and the cellar are adjacent.

The Dark Church (Karanlık Kilise). Its only window does not allow light to illuminate it, which is probably the reason for the excellent state of preservation of its frescoes. On the dome, Christ Pantocrator, on the narthex, a magnificent Ascension. The paintings represent the birth of Christ and his crucifixion.

At the bottom of the rock , another church, unnamed, decorated with a cross pattern of five circles, unique in the region.

The Sandal Church (Çarıklı Kilise). According to popular belief, it was a sandal track marking the passage of Christ, opposite the entrance, that inspired this strange name.

The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations is a must-see in the Turkish capital and ranks among the most beautiful museums in the country. The rich collections on display are the perfect introduction to Turkey's turbulent history. Housed in two Ottoman buildings, a bedesten (covered market) built by the vizier Mahmut Paşa in 1471 and the Kurşunlu Han caravanserai, this formidable museum, unique in its rare collections, allows you to follow the different civilizations present in Turkey from the Paleolithic to the Roman era.

The most fascinating finds concern the Neolithic and Hittite periods. The objects are arranged in chronological order. To understand the explanations, a good command of English or the purchase of a guidebook is essential! After the Paleolithic fossils, you arrive at the showcases of the remains discovered at Çatal Höyük (6500-5700 BC). A dwelling is reconstructed here with its wall paintings. The tools show the development of agriculture, but more interesting are the terracotta statuettes of generously proportioned women representing the Great Mother Goddess of Hacılar, a symbol of fertility. Similar figurines have been unearthed in the Greek Cyclades. You then move on to the Chalcolithic period (5500-3000 BC), with the first copper tools and utensils found in Hacılar and Alacahöyük.

The manufacture of metal objects diversified during the Early Bronze Period (3000-1950 BC). The objects exhibited here, beautiful jewelry, sun discs, and electrum animals, were found in Alacahöyük, the capital of the Hattis. In the section devoted to the period of the Assyrian colonies (1950-1750 BC), superb animal-shaped libation vessels are displayed. The Assyrian merchants contributed greatly to the development of the Anatolian civilization by introducing, among other things, writing. Then comes the collection of the Hittite Empire (1750-1200 BC), with tablets with cuneiform writing and exceptional pottery, which complement some visits to Cappadocia, and finally, the Phrygian period (1200-700 BC) and Urartian (1200-700 BC). The Urartes were the main opponents of the Phrygians.

The central part of the museum, devoted to Hittite sculpture, presents friezes inspired by military epics and monumental statues.

Main point of interest of Konya, the monastery was until 1927 (date of the prohibition of the brotherhood), the place of residence of the whirling dervishes, the mevlevis, a Sufi order inspired by the Persian mystic poetDjalâl ad-Dîn Rûmî, called Mevlana. The tekke of Mevlana consists of a large courtyard with a fountain (16th century) and 4 türbe on the left after the door, the building of the cells where the dervishes, after an obligatory period of manual labor could devote themselves to prayer facing the entrance the building where the tomb and the museum of Mevlana are located and, to the right of the entrance, the old kitchens. The convent was restored by Beyazıt II in the 15th century. To enter the türbe where the great sage is buried, one must remove his shoes. Women will cover their heads. The tomb is covered with a velvet cloth embroidered with gold.

In the samâ (ceremony room), you can admire a collection of musical instruments, including the famous ney (flute), with the plaintive sound so characteristic of the ritual music of the dervishes. You can also see the original manuscript of Mathnawi, the poems of the master. The next room, an ancient mosque, displays Korans and illuminations. Return to the courtyard and you will see a reconstruction of the life of the followers in the building that housed their cells. In the corridor, objects that belonged to Mevlana are displayed. And in the old kitchens, there are life-size scenes of the dervishes' communal life.

The interest of Ürgüp does not lie in its museum but rather in the charm of the old town's alleys: the walk there is very pleasant. The archaeological museum presents a small collection of objects as well as superb historical artifacts (figurines, pottery and some statues) discovered in the region. Most impressive are the tusks of an ancestor of the elephant family, more than 10 million years old, discovered in Mustafapaşa.

It's hard not to find a museum or a souvenir of Atatürk in a province... So Kayseri has its own museum dedicated to the great man of the nation. During his visit to the city in August 1919, Atatürk stayed in a wealthy 19th century Ottoman house, which today bears his name. The place is worth a visit, if only for its architecture: it is a two-storey house, with a very small mezzanine and typical Ottoman-style decoration. The historical building is located near the square.

The visit is not to be missed. The city museum includes an archaeology department and an ethnography department and a fine selection of objects discovered in the Assyrian city of Acemhöyük, near Aksaray. Approximately 10,000 pieces are on display dating back to the^5th millennium BC. The mummy of a woman, a nun with blond hair, found in the valley of Ihlara in the 1960s, remains one of the highlights of the visit.

The medersa dates from the time of the Karamanids (14th), a Seljuk branch. It was used until the beginning of the 20th century. Closed for a while, it became a prison in the 1940s and finally a museum in 1969. Stemming from different cultures, several settlements radiate at one time in the arid steppes of central Anatolia: Aşıklı Höyük (25 km to the southeast, near Kızılkaya), Musular (close to the first one), Güvercinkayası (1 km away near the villages Çatalsu and Apsarı Köyü), Acemhöyük (13 km to the northwest).

Located in Mimar Sinan Park, the complex consists of two buildings: a hospital built in 1206 and a medersa (medical school) built in 1219, one of the first medical schools in the world. The complex was built at the request of Sultan Keyhüsrev and his sister Gevser Nesibe Sultan. Today, the complex has been transformed into a museum that exhibits different sections on Seljuk civilization, history, art and culture. Interesting.

The Ethnological Museum traces the traditions of Cappadocia in scenes of daily life, ideal for getting acquainted with local customs and habits. As the museum is also a restaurant and café, it is very pleasant to eat quality Turkish food and to visit the museum before or afterwards. Interior room and terrace. Perhaps only one drawback: the place is spacious and can accommodate groups, which consequently make a stopover there.

This museum was originally located in the 13th century medersa of Hunat Hatun Külliyesi. Its contents have been housed in a historic 15th century house since 1998. And it is indeed the building that is worth seeing with its black and white stone facade and its splendid ceilings. Otherwise, you can admire a collection of ceramics, costumes, weapons and usual objects as well as a reconstruction of a house and a nomad tent (yurt).

Camii Kilise or Aşağı Camii or Büyük Kilise, the Byzantine church of St. Gregory of Naziance (theologian, one of the fathers of the Greek Church) dates from the 4th century. It became a mosque after the population exchange of the 1920s. It houses a magnificent pulpit and an iconostasis of chiselled wood.

Sivişli Kilise or the Church of St. Annargiros has a dome and columns carved into the rock as well as 19th century frescoes. On leaving, take the stairs on the left to enjoy a superb panorama of the village.

The excavations that have been carried out in the region have mainly fed the museum in Ankara, but some of the finds have been transferred here. These remains concern mainly the Neolithic period (about 9000 BC), the Chalcolithic period (about 4000 BC), and the Assyrian settlements (end of the third millennium BC). There is also a small ethnographic section and a collection of Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman coins.

The Nevşehir museum is very small but it is free. There are two exhibition halls, archaeological and ethnographic. The latter displays objects from different periods going back to the Bronze Age, and some interesting sarcophagi. On the second floor there is an ethnographic collection of carpets and jewelry. The museum conducts excavations in the village of Şahin Efendi (near Ürgüp), the ancient Sobessos. Friendly staff, especially the director of the museum.

The archaeological museum in the city of Kayseri reminds us how Anatolia was the cradle of great civilizations that shone at various times. His collection includes finds from the Hittite city of Kanesh (Kültepe), tablets engraved with cuneiform inscriptions as well as Hellenistic and Roman objects. In the garden are two impressive lions from the 7th century BC. Although the museum is not very big, it is quite interesting.