Hatay Archaeological Museum

The Hatay Archaeological Museum has been in its purpose-built home since 2014, and it is best known for one thing: mosaics. The floors on show cover about 3,250 square metres, making it one of the largest mosaic displays anywhere, and the fine detail, coloured stones, scale and quality place it among the world's most important mosaic museums.

Much of that collection came to light in the 1930s, when Princeton University led excavations at Antioch. Part of it ended up in some twenty museums and private collections around the world, which makes what remains in Antakya all the more valuable. Among the most striking pieces are the Abandoned Ariadne, the Satyr and Hermaphroditus, the Seasons, the Birth of Venus, Artemis and the Skeleton mosaics.

Beyond mosaics the museum follows the whole of Hatay's story, from the Palaeolithic and Neolithic through the Bronze Age, Hittites, Hellenistic and Roman periods to the Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman eras. Finds come from Antakya itself and from Iskenderun, Daphne, Tell Atçana, Tell Tayinat and Samandağ. Look for the statue of Suppiluliuma, the Tyche statue, the Antakya sarcophagus and a wide coin collection struck at the Antioch mint.