SANLIURFA Balikli Gol - Balikli Lake

In order to preserve the rather rich cultural and historical heritage in Sanliurfa the foundation of a museum was given start in 1948. The artifacts which were dispersed were gathered together in a storage room in Ataturk Primary School and thus the nucleus of the first museum in Sanliurfa was constituted.

The museum’s construction started in 1965 in the Sehitlik district on an area measuring 1.500 sqm and in 1969 the museum opened its doors to visitors. The museum building comprising two halls and one storage room rendered the construction of a new museum building obligatory due to the abundance of the opuses gathered from the environment, obtained from the excavations or by way of purchase.The additional building the construction of which started in 1982 in which arrangements as to contemporary displaying and organizing were carried out was put into service in the year 1988. The first hall in the basement is devoted to stone opuses from the Assyrian, Babylonian and Hittite Ages.

In the second and third halls devoted archaeological sections cutters drillers made of flintstone, stone idols and pots belonging to the neolithic age between 7000-5000 BC, ceramics with dyes or plain geometrical designs made of cooked earth, seals, jugs (pithos) in which the dead were burried, necklace breeds made of faience belonging to the calchoic period between 5000-3000 BC, pieces of jugs stamped made of cooked earth , cylindrical and stamp seals, pieces of pots with figurines, animal figurines and idols dating back to the old bronze age between 3000- 2000 BC are displayed .As of 1991 there are 14.193 arcaeological opuses, 1.878 ethnographical works, 35.613 coins, 3 tablets, 862 seals, one archive document and one manuscript totalling to 53.271 . The museum is open to visits daily except Mondays between 08.30-12.30/13.30-17.30.