Istanbul Naval Museum

Istanbul Naval Museum
Istanbul Naval Museum
Map
Established1897; 127 years ago (1897)
LocationHayrettin İskelesi Sok.
80690 Beşiktaş, Istanbul, Turkey
TypeNaval museum
Websitedenizmuzesi.dzkk.tsk.tr/en
Turkish Naval Forces
Components
History
Special Forces
Equipment

The Istanbul Naval Museum (Turkish: İstanbul Deniz Müzesi) is a national naval museum, located in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul, Turkey. It was established in 1897 by the Ottoman Minister of the Navy (Bahriye Nazırı) Bozcaadalı Hasan Hüsnü Pasha.[1][2]

The museum contains an important collection of military artifacts pertaining to the Ottoman Navy.[1] In the maritime field, it is Turkey's largest museum, with a great variety of collections. Around 20,000 pieces are present in its collection, including the late 16th or early 17th century Ottoman galley known as Tarihi Kadırga, built in the period between the reigns of Sultan Murad III (1574–1595) and Sultan Mehmed IV (1648–1687),[3][4] as evidenced by AMS radiocarbon dating and dendrochronological research.[4] She is the only surviving original galley in the world,[3][5] and has the world's oldest continuously maintained wooden hull.[6]

Being connected to the Turkish Naval Forces Command, it is also the country's first military museum.[7]

In the early 21st century a new exhibition building was constructed. The construction began in 2008, and the building was reopened on October 4, 2013. It has two floors above ground level and one basement floor, all covering 20,000 m2 (220,000 sq ft).[7]

The basement consists of diverse items like figureheads, ornaments of naval ships, ship models, and pieces of the Byzantine chain that was used for blocking the entrance of the Golden Horn during the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453. In the first and second floors, a large number of imperial and other caïques are exhibited.

Many exhibition items underwent special restoration and conservation works due to deformation of the raw materials caused by heat, light, humidity, atmospheric conditions, vandalism and other factors.[7]

  1. ^ a b The World of Learning 2004 by Michael Salzman p.1670
  2. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-09-30. Retrieved 2011-08-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ a b "The Historical Galley". denizmuzesi.dzkk.tsk.tr. 2021-11-24. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Liphschitz, N., 2014. The Kadirga galley in Istanbul – The Turkish Sultan's Caique: A dendrohistorical research. In: Environment and Ecology in the Mediterranean Region II (eds. R. Efe and M. Ozturk). Cambridge Scholars Pub. Pp.39-48. Cambridge".
  5. ^ "Cornucopia Magazine". www.cornucopia.net. Retrieved 2022-03-16.
  6. ^ "Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation - Texas A&M University". nautarch.tamu.edu. Retrieved 2021-11-24.
  7. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference dm was invoked but never defined (see the help page).