Antalya’s museums and ancient sites like mint

ANTALYA - Doğan News Agency

Museums and 17 ancient sites in Antalya, which increase its tourism revenues every year, were visited by 3,125 million people in 2013.

Antalya’s museums and ancient sites, including the Saint Nicholas Museum in Demre and the Alanya Castle, which brought the highest income, received more than 3 million visitors in 2013. The total contribution of these sites to the Turkish economy was 10,600 Turkish Liras.

Four museums and 17 ancient sites in Antalya, which increase its tourism revenues every year, were visited by 3,125 million people last year. The city’s foreign guests were more than 11 million in the same year.

The world famous Saint Nicholas Museum in Demre was the most popular place among visitors with 528,800 people. The museum ranked fifth in 2012 with 504,262 visitors. The income from the museum was 720,000 liras.

UNESCO candidate

It was followed by the ancient city of Myra with 462,000 visitors and the Alanya Castle with 420,202 people. The castle, which is one of the candidates for the UNESCO World Heritage List broke the revenue record with 2,122,395 liras and became the place that brought the highest revenue to the city.
 
The castle’s history dates back to the Seljuk period and it was also the eighth most popular place in Turkey in 2012.

The Aspendos Theater, which draws attention thanks to its unique acoustic, was visited by 385,553 people last year. The revenue from the theater was 1,360 million liras. One of Turkey’s largest museums, the Antalya Museum was also very popular among local and foreign guests in 2013. Home to the Weary Hercules statue, which was brought to Turkey in 2011 after being smuggled abroad 31 years ago, the museum was visited by 130,073 people and earned 834,000 liras.

The entrance fee for museums and ancient sites was between 5 and 15 liras in 2013. The Antalya, Alanya and Saint Nicholas Museum were visited for 15 liras while visitors paid 10 liras to visit Side Museum and 5 liras for Elmalı Museum.

The entrance fee to Aspendos, Perge, Phaselis, Myra, Xhantos, Simena, Patara, Termessos, Karain, Olympos, Arykanda, Alanya Castle, Syedra Castle and Side Theater was also between 5 and 15 liras last year.

The Antalya Atatürk House was free to visit and hosted 80,837 people. The Alanya Atatürk House was visited by 8,326,000 people.

The situation was not different in Antalya in 2012, too. The museums and ancient sites in the city received a total of 3,114 million visitors and earned 9,850,721 liras.