Aydın Archaeological Museum

Aydın Museum started in 1959 in one room of Zafer Primary School, and it stayed there for a long time. From 1973 it moved into a purpose-built museum building. Since then it has built up rich collections from Aydın town and its districts, and now covers archaeology, coins and ethnography.

The large garden shows stone works from the ancient cities within Aydın province, among them Tralleis, Magnesia, Alinda, Alabanda, Nysa, Amyzon, Piginda, Harpasa, Myus, Pygela, Orthosia and Mastaura. Look for statues, sarcophagi, columns and capitals, altars, tomb stelae, Islamic gravestones, milestones and inscribed relief stelae.

Indoors, the display has three sections: archaeology, coins and ethnography. The archaeological finds run in chronological order from prehistoric times to Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman examples: hand axes, cutting and piercing tools, idols, spindle whorls, pottery, oil lamps, masks and figurines, glassware, gold, silver and bronze jewellery, medical instruments and cosmetic items.