Antalya Necropolis Museum

In 2005 the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality held an architectural competition for the old Eastern Garage and public market site in the middle of the city. Building began in 2008, and as soon as the foundations were dug, ancient graves came to light. Specialists from the Antalya Museum recognised the ground as the eastern necropolis of Attaleia, the ancient predecessor of today's Antalya, and rescue excavations began.

Those excavations ran almost without a break until the end of 2010 and covered a large area. They uncovered hundreds of graves, over a thousand inventoried objects and tens of thousands of further archaeological finds. Instead of clearing the site, the city chose to make the burial ground itself the museum, so the building is unusual: a modern design placed around and over a cemetery that had lain beneath a market for centuries.

For visitors this means an urban museum with a very direct link to the people of ancient Attaleia, rather than a collection brought from somewhere else. It is a good stop for anyone curious about burial customs and everyday life in Roman-period Pamphylia, and it adds context to the objects shown in Antalya's other archaeological sites.