One of the most dynamic things we saw when we were in Turkey was at a museum in Antalya. The pretty mediterranean city of Antalya is mostly noted as a resort town and the place where the Blue Cruises originate. When Jerry and I knew we would be leaving Turkey sometime in the late fall of 1992, we decided to take a weekend trip to Antalya, as it was in an area that we had previously not investigated. We were there after the summer season, and since we were not of a mind to throw ourselves on a beachtowel and work on our tans, we used the time for sightseeing. Antalya is not particularly known for its museums, but there was one we just couldn't pass by. We had heard and read about their Gallery of the Gods, and that is what we decided to see on our first day there.
To say it was stunning is an understatement. To do the museum justice, what you read below is from Frommer's website and will give you an idea of the treasures that this smallish museum has in it.
If you do only one cultural thing in Antalya, make it this. Antalya province is endowed with one of the richest cultural heritages in Turkey, and much of it can be seen at this museum. More than 5,000 archaeological works are displayed in 14 thought-provoking exhibit halls. The Prehistory section includes an amazing collection of artifacts recovered from the Karain Cave at Burdur -- the largest inhabited cave in Turkey, with findings dating back 50,000 years and representing the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze ages. The Gallery of the Gods gives you the chance to walk among the protagonists of classic mythology, through grand statues of Zeus, Apollo, Athena, Aphrodite, and the like, followed by statues of the emperor/gods Hadrian and Traian in the Roman Room. The Sarcophagus Gallery is a rich exhibition of intricately carved tombs, one of which was considerately returned by the J. Paul Getty Museum, after having found its way out of the country. There are also small but important exhibitions featuring the Byzantine period, which houses a collection of religious icons, and the Selçuk and Ottoman periods, where you'll find ceramic artifacts, calligraphy, copper, carvings, and carpets. The Antalya Museum devotes an entire room to coins; the chronological display represents 2,500 years of Anatolian history. Considering that this is such a rich collection
Jerry and I spent an entire day there. And we would return for another look in a heartbeat. We are not sorry we missed lolling around in the sun on the beautiful beach with turquoise water at our toe-tips; what we saw in that amazing museum and what we learned that day was plenty good enough for us.
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