Historical factory to serve culture in Turkey's Adana

ADANA – Anadolu Agency

The New Adana Archaeology Museum is being established in the former place of Milli Mensucat Factory, which was opened in 1907. AA photo

One of Turkey’s oldest museums, the Adana Archaeology Museum, which was established in 1924 right after the proclamation of the Turkish Republic, will soon be able to display new artwork once a new complex is completed.

The New Adana Archaeology Museum is being established in the former place of Milli Mensucat Factory, which was opened in 1907, and will include city, industry, ethnography and agriculture museums. The first phase of the museum will be finished in April.

The museum is home to 18,100 archaeological works, including selected works from the early periods of Çukuruova.

Among them, nearly 500 are on display in the museum while 16,600 archaeological works are being kept in storages because of insufficient place.

Adana Gov. Hüseyin Coş said they gave big importance to the museum issue to reveal and display the historic richness of the city.

Speaking about the situation of the current Adana Archaeology Museum, Coş said: “The Adana Museum is not insufficient not only for displaying artworks but also for keeping them in storage. We previously worked for the establishment of a new museum but there was no result. We informed Culture and Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik about the situation and he supported us.”

Two-phase project

Coş said they had started a two-phase project for the museum complex and a nearly 9,000-square-meter archaeology and mosaic museum will be finished soon. He said that in the second phase, they would finish a museum complex with living areas like cinema and reading rooms in it as well as other units like a city, children, agriculture, industry and ethnography museum.

“When the complex is done, the museum will have a closed area of 38,000 square meters. It will be one of the largest museums. The project of the first phase has been approved. It will be delivered to us in April. Works have been continuing for the second phase. There will be some 700 archaeological artifacts and 45 mosaic works will be displayed in the museum,” the mayor said, adding that the total cost of the museum complex would exceed 60 million Turkish Liras.