If you're lucky, he then sits back down again; if not, he'll trail along behind you, making you feel more like an intruder than a valued visitor. But none of this is the case, of course, when it comes to the blockbuster museums, the real gems that it's worth going out of your way to include on your itinerary. So with no further ado, these are our nominations for Turkey's top 10 museums. Enjoy!1) İstanbul Archeology Museum: İstanbul's answer to the British Museum or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is the Archeology Museum, actually a group of museums housed in lovely buildings in the lee of Topkapı Sarayı. The finest of them is also the oldest, the exquisite Çinili Köşk (Tiled Pavilion), which dates back to the reign of Mehmet the Conqueror and now houses a collection of Turkish ceramics -- everything from the finest İznik ware to more modern pieces. The Eski Şark Eserler Müsezi (Museum of the Ancient Orient) exhibits finds from all over the Ottoman Empire, but the finest pieces of all are on display in the imposing Arkeoloji Müsezi (Archeology Museum), where top prize would have to go to the exquisite Alexander Sarcophagus, a piece dating back to the fourth century B.C. and depicting the exploits of Alexander the Great, which was brought here from the Sidon necropolis (now in Lebanon). The latest addition to the museum is a gallery which showcases finds made recently on the grounds of the Four Seasons Hotel in Sultanahmet and at Yenikapı, where dozens of wooden ships from a medieval port were dredged up intact from the mud.
Open: 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Monday.
2) Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts: Overlooking İstanbul's Hippodrome, what was once the palace of İbrahim Paşa, the brother-in-law of Süleyman the Magnificent, now houses a wonderful selection of old Qurans, mosque lamps and candlesticks, and magnificent carpets, including some Uşak pieces that stretch from floor to ceiling now that they can no longer be laid on the ground. Accessed from the garden is the fine ethnographic section where you can inspect a yörük tent and learn more about the vanished nomadic lifestyle.
Open: 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Closed Monday.
3) Rahmi M. Koç Museum: Turkey's first industrial heritage museum is housed inside a surprisingly beautiful old anchor-making factory and in the cluster of buildings around an old shipyard at Hasköy on İstanbul's Golden Horn. Come here to sigh over glistening old Chevrolets and Jaguars from the days before we all started worrying about the environment and to inspect all types of transport from some of the city's original tram carriages to the railway compartment in which Sultan Abdülaziz traveled to Paris in 1867. It all adds up to a great day out for children.
Open: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Closed Monday.
4) Pera Museum: Housed in a fine old mansion on Meşrutiyet Caddesi in İstanbul's trendy Tepebaşı district, the Pera Museum hosts changing art exhibitions as well as a permanent collection of images of İstanbul from the 17th century, many of them created by foreign visitors to the city. The single most popular painting is Osman Hamdi Bey's magnificent "The Tortoise Trainer," which is far bigger and more impressive than tawdry reproductions around town might suggest. Here, too, you can see an impressive display of Kütahya pottery as well as a collection of Anatolian weights and measures that is of rather specialist interest.
Open: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday.
5) Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara: If there's one reason for a foreign visitor to break their journey in Ankara, it's probably to visit the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations housed in an old bedestan (market building) on the hillside beneath the Hisar (Castle) district. Most of the greatest finds from excavations in Anatolia have wound up here (those that have not been taken overseas, of course), and the Neolithic wall paintings from Çatalhöyük, a gorgeous Urartian cauldron, hundreds of cuneiform tablets from Kültepe, near Kayseri, and wonderful Hittite reliefs from Hattu?a, near Çorum, are all displayed in chronological order. It makes the perfect prelude or conclusion to a tour with a strong archeological focus.
Open: 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Monday.
6) Antalya Museum: Escaping from the big conurbations, Antalya has one of the country's best museums largely because of its proximity to the important archeological sites at Termessos, Side, Perge and Aspendos. The finest room is the so-called Hall of Gods, where statues of 16 Ancient Roman gods and goddesses, mainly found at Perge, are beautifully displayed. More poignant is a room which shows off sarcophagi and other ancient pieces recovered from overseas museums over the last decade or so.
Open: 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Closed Monday.
7) Ephesus Museum: An essential add-on to any visit to the famous ruins of Ephesus is this small museum, actually in nearby Selçuk and therefore easy to overlook. Come here to see dioramas of what life would have been like during Ephesus' heyday and to inspect one of the curious multi-breasted statues of the goddess Kybele Artemis (some commentators insist the strange egg shapes hanging down her chest really represent the severed testicles of her priests). You'll probably get the most out of a visit after touring the site itself first.
Open: 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
8) Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archeology: Housed in the spectacular Castle of St. Peter right on the Bodrum waterfront, this is a museum which could hardly have a better setting -- and for some people that in itself will be enough to justify a visit. Others, however, will swoon over the remains of wrecked ships dating back to prehistoric times that have been carefully reconstructed here, as well as over the sight of a Carian princess and her funerary finery displayed alongside a reconstruction of what she might have looked like in life, but these are just the tip of an iceberg of furnished towers and landscaped grounds that make this museum such a joy to explore.
Open: 8 a.m.-noon and 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Some rooms keep individual opening hours. Closed Monday.
9) Gaziantep Museum: The star in the crown of rapidly modernizing Gaziantep is its newly revitalized museum where the mosaics from Belkis-Zeugma, the Roman town on the banks of the Fırat (Euphrates) that was drowned by the Birecik Dam in 2001, are now on display. The pieces are spectacular, like carpets made from tiny stones, and the layout does them proud, with raised walkways enabling visitors to gaze down on them from above. Finest of all the exhibits is the tiny mosaic of the head of a gypsy girl on show in the older part of the museum. It has become the de facto symbol of Gaziantep, so make sure you don't miss it.
Open: 8:30 a.m.-noon and 1:30 p.m.-5 p.m. Closed Monday.
10) Antakya Museum: Unless you're on your way to Syria, you might not think to include Antakya on your itinerary, which would be a shame since its museum is right up there with the best of them, even now that Gaziantep has stolen most of the mosaic thunder. The mosaics on display in Antakya mainly come from Dafne (Harbiye), a southerly suburb which was where wealthy Romans liked to built their villas. Some of them, such as the one of the sea deities Oceanus and Thetis, are so fine that from a distance they could be mistaken for paintings. Others are extremely quirky, like the tiny picture of a collection of ravens, scorpions and pitchforks attacking an "evil eye."
Open: 8:30 a.m.-noon and 1:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. Closed Monday.
Next week: The best of the rest: Turkey's 10 best smaller museums
