İzmir Archaeological Museum

Address Bahri Baba Park, Konak, İzmir

The İzmir Archaeological Museum holds one of the finest collections of Aegean antiquities in Turkey, drawn primarily from excavations at Smyrna, Ephesus, Pergamon, and the surrounding region. The collection spans prehistoric finds through Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, with particular strengths in Greek and Roman marble sculpture.

The museum is located in Bahri Baba Park near Konak Square, a pleasant setting with gardens around the building. Allow two hours for a proper visit. Combination tickets are available with the adjacent İzmir Ethnography Museum, which covers Ottoman and traditional life.

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A story
Among the museum's most prized possessions is a series of large marble statues of Poseidon and Demeter from the second century CE, recovered from the Agora of Smyrna. The Poseidon is one of the finest surviving Roman-era marble sculptures in Turkey — technically remarkable, with the sea-god's robes depicted in extraordinary detail. It was found broken into fragments during excavations in the 1930s and painstakingly reassembled.