Antalya Ethnography Museum

Antalya combines natural beauty with one of Turkey's densest layers of history. Lycian, Roman and Byzantine cities line the Mediterranean coast, but the town itself has been continuously inhabited and kept its importance under the Seljuks and Ottomans. To understand that later story, its social life, customs and traditions, this museum in Kaleiçi is the place to start.

The museum was created by converting two historic Ottoman mansions, known by their positions as the Lower and Upper Mansions. Each holds different collections. The Lower Mansion houses Turkish-Islamic works, and its ground floor shows finds from excavations in Kaleiçi alongside tile fragments brought from the theatre at Aspendos, one of Turkey's best-known ancient buildings.

Those tiles date from the Seljuk period, when the theatre was used as a palace. The Upper Mansion turns to daily life in Ottoman Antalya, using scenes with mannequins and objects to show how people lived, dressed and worked. Together the two buildings give a warm, human-scale look at the city that ancient sites cannot.