Imagine this: in the course of my short European trips, I came to Amasya in the Turkish Black Sea region because I had heard of an ancient love story . A legend, of course, but being a romantic at heart, I couldn’t resist. And then, I discovered that a small town, wedged into a mountain canyon and divided by a river has a museum the exhibits of which would easily turn the curators of world famous museums green with envy. It should not really have come as a surprise, because more than 7 different civilisations have left their traces in Amasya and the best of it is displayed in a museum which is very much to my taste, because it is small, empty and you can get really close to the fabulous things displayed with ample explanations next to them. Amasya’s Archaeology museum opened in its present form in 1980. The building itself is unremarkable, just a grey and red concrete block and you must watch out or you might walk past. But go inside, pay the modest admission of 3 TYL (just over 1GBP), enter through the glass doors and you simply go “Ohhh”. The museum has only two floors and the ground floor is dedicated to antiquity. Lit by soft, yellow spotlights, the first thing you nearly fall over is a collection of huge amphoras, unbroken and piled in a corner. Amphoras piled in the museum’s entry hall And it’s just this somewhat casual way of displaying things which make the museum so attractive and easy to navigate. There is only one main aisle and glass showcases are set into the walls. There is the treasure of Saraycik (307-337 AD) consisting of gold coins which pour out of a bronze jug. Treasure of Saraycik Roman jewellery of the finest craft, coins, seals and other artefacts fill other showcases. And then there is the highlight, the one which causes the envy of much more renowned museums: the statue of Teshup, a king of the Hittite period spanning the 14 th to the 12 th century BC.

Original Source Amasya’s Archaeology Museum, Turkey