Topkapı Palace most popular

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Topkapı Palace receives the most number of visitors in the first four months. Hürriyet photo

Of all Turkish museums and ancient sites, Istanbul’s Topkapı Palace received the highest number of visitors in the first four months of this year, according to information provided by the Culture and Tourism Ministry Revolving Funds Enterprise. The museum was visited by a total of 8,521,197 people in this period.

Topkapı Palace was followed by the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul with 835,187 visitors, and the ancient city of Ephesus in İzmir with 350,134 visitors.

The southern province of Antalya followed Istanbul and İzmir in terms of provinces where cultural places received the most visitors. The other museums and ancient sites that received significant numbers of visitors were the Hieropolis ancient site in Denizli (309,669), the Mevlana Museum in Konya (291,187), the Göreme Open Air Museum in Nevşehir (229,650), Topkapı Palace’s Seraglio (200,369), the Istanbul Archaeology Museum (118,554), the Kariye Museum in Istanbul (100,501), and the Myra ancient site in Antalya (69,615).

Meanwhile, 2.5 million people have so far obtained the Müzekart (Museum Card) since it was introduced in June 2008 by the Culture Ministry. The card allows people to visit museums in the country for free throughout the year. In the first four months of this year, 254,427 cards were sold.