The archaeological remains in Turkey were assembled for the first time and preserved in the interior of what was the Church of St. Irene, situated behind Saint Sophia. It was founded, erected in one of the outer gardens of Topkapi Palace thanks to the initiative of Osman Hamdi Bey, one of the pioneers of painting in our country and himself a master of this art. Appointed head of the Museum with the title of Director General [1381], he organised the excavations at Saida (the ancient Sidon).

The rooms of the Museum of Archaeology are laid out as follows:
The entrance is numbered as Room XII. Room I, from where our visit starts, is at the very end of the corridor to the left.

Room I: The middle of the stone at the right of its window is a decree promulgated by the Emperor Anastasius I, governing the circulation of ships crossing the Dardanelles - a decree in force no longer! One of the two inscriptions in the middle of the room mentions an internal loan made to Milet. This goes to show that the problems modern governments face now existed in the year 205 B.C.!

The left-hand side of the room is reserved for statues unearthed at Silahtaraga in the neighborhood of Istanbul during the construction of the Electricity Centre, and for antiquities discovered at Izmit and transported here.

In the right-hand section are Byzantine tomb-stones of the ancient epoch. The cemetery where the stones were found extended from Cemberlitas to Laleli, including Beyazit and Suleymaniye.
 

Room II: Architectural antiquities. Here in particular are to be found bas-reliefs, mosaics end panels. In the middle section can be seen Hercules gathering the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides. On the other mosaic Hercules is slaying the Nemean lion. In the right-hand section, in the middle, on a mosaic on the ground, is Orpheus sitting on a rock playing the lyre; on either side of Orpheus, on the branches of a tree, are various animals, a peacock, a duck and an eagle.

Room III: In the middle section is the Sarcophagus of Sidamara. This funeral monument was discovered in the province of Kenya, in the district where the ancient town of Sidamara used to be, on the road which goes from Eregli to Karaman. Among sarcophagi of this type it is one of the finest and most widely known. From this comes the name “Sarcophagus of Sidamara” given to analogous funeral monuments. On the lid of the sarcophagus the occupant of the coffin can be seen, with his wife lying beside him. On the principal face of the monument, on the window side, a man in the garb of a philosopher can be seen, with a young girl dressed like Artemis on his right, and on his left a woman with her head covered. At two ends the Dioscuri hold the bridles of horses. On the narrow part of the sarcophagus a woman carrying fruit is standing in front of the gate of the tomb; on the other part there are hunting scenes.

Room IV: Sarcophagi and funeral steles. In the left-hand section there is a sarcophagus for two person’s discovered in Crete and dating from the 2nd century after Christ. The Greek sculptor who carved this funeral monument, has depicted on the sides a quantity of gods and Egyptian figures.

Room VII: The majority of the antiquities in this room were found at Saida near Beirut, at the time when Lebanon was a province of the Ottoman Empire - that is to say at quite a recent epoch, some 80 years ago.

In the right hand section are lead sarcophagi and fragments, dating from the Roman era. These funeral monuments have been influenced by Phoenician. Greek and Roman styles, and are works of the 3rd and 4th century after Christ.

Room VIII: Sarcophagus of Alexander the Great. Here continuing its sleep of 20 centuries, reposes one of the greatest works of art of its kind in existence. In 1887, the founder of this museum, the painter Osman Hamdi Bey, made at Saida, in the Necropolis of the Kings, the greatest archaeological discovery of the 19th century. This discovery has an interesting history: the owner of a plot of land, in a village, one day discovered a deep well. He notified the governor, who informed the proper authorities in Istanbul. The Director of Museums came in person to supervise the excavations, and discovered in this necropolis two caves. The first one was 10 metres in depth and 3.70 metres wide, and at the far end of it were 4 rooms, the doors of which were hidden by the walls. Near to these rooms, some without any communication with the others, three further rooms were found. This first tomb had been robbed by unknown persons. The second cave was 4 metres wide and 7.50 metres deep. At the end of it two rooms were found. In one of them (3.30 meters down, in a cavity) the sarcophagus of King Tabnit was discovered, concealed beneath a heap of stones. It is thought that this tomb dates from the 5th century before Christ. As for the three other funeral monuments, they must have been placed there at some former period, towards the end of the 4th century B. C.