Antalya MuseumThe Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
Founded in 1922, Antalya Museum houses one of the most significant collections of Roman-era sculptures in the world.
Steeped in Antalya’s rich ancient heritage, the Museum’s collection spans thousands of years of civilization from the Lower Paleolithic Age to the Roman period.
Antalya Museum with sea viewThe Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
Antalya Museum is home to a vast collection of artifacts from Lycian, Pamphylian, and Pisidian settlements. The museum's collection began with a voluntary donation of artifacts, and today it includes 14 exhibition halls, open-air galleries, and gardens.
Aphrodite of Knidos (Roman Period)The Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
The Aphrodite of Knidos
The statue is a Roman replica of the Aphrodite of Knidos, one of the most famous sculptures of the Classical Period. It was created by Praxiteles (died 330 BCE), the son of the renowned sculptor Cephisodotus.
The Aphrodite of Knidos is considered to be Praxiteles's most important and well-known work.
Despite the loss of the original statue, it has been identified through Roman marble copies and coins from the Roman period depicting the statue.
Ariadne, The Sarcophagus LidThe Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
Ariadne, The Sarcophagus Lid
Ariadne, daughter of King Minos of Crete, is depicted asleep in this sarcophagus cover. The statue was discovered in 1995 by a farmer near Perge. Legend has it that Theseus, son of the King of Athens, is summoned to Crete to defeat a half-human, half-beast Minotaur.
Ariadne, who falls in love with Theseus, urges him to marry her before facing the beast in Labyrinthos and gives him a ball of yarn to help him find his way out of the labyrinth. After killing the beast, Theseus marries Ariadne, only to abandon her on the island of Naxos.
Exhausted from crying, Ariadne falls asleep on a rock only to be discovered by Dionysus, the god of wine. Dionysus falls in love with Ariadne and marries her. The sarcophagus cover depicts the scene when Dionysus first sees Ariadne sleeping on a rock.
Berenice Vase (246-222 BCE)The Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
Berenice Vase
Embossed “Oinochoe” shaped wine container unearthed during the excavations of the ancient city of Xanthos. Per the inscription, the vase was made as a gift to Egyptian Queen Berenice II, the wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes, between 246-222 BC.
The female figure, Tyche (the goddess of luck), holds a sacred bowl (phiale) in her right hand and a cornucopia in her left arm.
Dancing Woman
An essential piece of the Antalya Museum collection, the dancing woman, is a rare example from the Roman period that is made from fine-pored marble inin two colors: black and white. The skin is made of white marble, whereas her clothes and hair are made from black marble.
Altar (Bomos)The Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
Altar (Bomos)
Small examples of altars, generally considered to be used in interior worship, are called "Bomos". This bomos, unearthed in Arykanda, portrayed the goddess Athena in the local. Remarkably, some red madders on the inscription and figure are still visible.
Artemis and Horoscopes
The light disc-shaped artefact was found in the Ancient City of Perge. The band surrounding the disc is divided into twelve sections, and in each section, the zodiac sign symbol is embossed. The goddess Artemis and figures related to her are depicted in the inner circle.
Leto (6 th-7 th BCE)The Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
Leto
The ivory figurine with a girl on its side and a boy on its shoulder was found in the Elmalı-Bayındır Tumulus. It dates back to the late 7th or the early 6th century BC.
One of the stories about Leto is as follows: Leto, the lover of Zeus, comes to the Xanthos Valley in Lycia to give birth to her children and wash them here, but the Lycian farmers do not allow her to reach the water, and Leto turns them into frogs as a punishment.
Plancia Magna (2nd Century AD)The Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
Plancia Magna
Plancia Magna lived in the Ancient City of Perge in the 2nd Century AD and made an outstanding contribution to the city's development.
Unlike other women living in that period, she took on political, religious and social tasks while managing the reconstruction activities of Perge. She managed to come to the fore in different fields. Thanks to her unique character, her name was remembered even centuries later.
Sarcophagus of Aurelia Botiane Demetria (2nd Century CE)The Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
Sarcophagus of Aurelia Botiane Demetria
This sarcophagus is an example of the "Sarcophagi of Asia Minor with Columns" group. It is divided into three sides by columns. The cover is in the form of a "Kline" (a kind of bed on which to rest or eat).
The three sides of the sarcophagus are divided by fluted columns, and high-relief figures are made in the areas between the columns. On the columns, the oyster shell-shaped superstructure carried by the Corinthian capitals is richly decorated with egg rows and Kymation belts.
The Sarcophagus of HeraclesThe Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
The Sarcophagus of Heracles
The marble sarcophagus depicts the twelve missions of Heracles (Hercules). It has a “Torre Nova” style that belongs in the "Asia Minor Sarcophagus group."
Heracles Farnese (2nd CE)The Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
Heracles Farnese
The statue was built in the 2nd CE, in Ancient Perge as a copy of renowned sculptor Lysippos' statue of the 4th century BC. It depicts the moment After Heracles kills Nemean Lion, who is not possible to harm with any weapon, resting on his scepter.
There are several copies of the Roman Period of the statute known as "Heracles Farnese." However, the present Heracles Farnese copy displays in Antalya Museum is considered to have superior craftsmanship.
Sarcophagus of the Champion Theronides (the 3rd century)The Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
The Sarcophagus of the Champion Theronides
The Champion Sarcophagus, which was unearthed in the Patara excavations in 2000, is a prominent piece in the collection of the Antalya Museum. The sarcophagus was found under the sand at a central point adjacent to the south of the Patara Assembly Building.
Since the sarcophagus was left in one of the most central points of ancient Patara, it is possible to say that the owner of the sarcophagus was an extremely loved and valued member of society.
This inscription belongs to an athlete named Lucius Septimus Theronides. He won seven international championships, including the Olympic Games, the Pythian Games, the Capitoline Games, the Games of the Koinon of Asia, the Hadrianic Games, and the Caesareian Games.
For his accomplishments, he was given the title of Paradoxos, which means "extraordinary."
The Bronze Bird (The Dead Bird)The Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
The Bronze Bird (The Dead Bird)
The bird figurine found in the excavations of the Ancient City of Arykanda is one of the exciting works of the Antalya Museum collection. Since the bird's feathers are depicted as a fish stamp, it is thought to be an eagle. Here the eagle is lying on one side in a dormant state.
The bronze foundry artist visualised the eagle most likely as death or in a posthumous form. The bronze eagle statuette of Arykanda could be dated back to the Roman Period.
The Sarcophagus of HeraclesThe Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums of Türkiye
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