Watch Your Head: Chapter 5 "The Museum"

Chapter 5: The Museum

The weather on Wednesday was predicted to be bad.  The wind had picked up the night before and by the time we got up it was howling and we could hear the waves crashing in our room.  It was a great day to see the museum.

When we asked the front desk about the best way to get there they said walking is easiest.  We had passed it the day before, but I wasn’t sure if there was a bus or shuttle system of some sort.  When we initially went outside by the pool it was sunny and just a little windy.  By the time we got down to the beach it was quite another story.  The sun was still out, but holy wind.  It felt to me like between 10-15 knots of wind just blowing.  There were white caps on the water and the waves here crashing into the shore.  There was a man standing by the water line we saw him get knocked over but something that was just a little bit bigger than he was.  Not a good day for a swim.

This is a look down the beach.  The sea was getting angry, but at least the sun was still out.

This ship was anchored out and we could see it rocking and rolling.  By the time we got out of the museum it had moved.  I have a feeling the anchor wasn't holding or it was just too rough to sit. 

You can see my hair blowing in the wind.  It took a lot of energy to climb up the cliff and not get blown over.

We made it to the museum and once we figured out where the entrance was we were happy to go in and get out of the wind.  Admission was 15TL and at first I was nervous it wouldn’t be worth it.  There was an exhibit or Neolithic artifacts.  This is generally my least favorite part of a museum, but Bryan made a good point about how everything was labeled based on the different species of man that were present.  I really appreciated this new outlook on it and knew it was a good idea to bring him along.

This is the exterior of the Antalya Museum.  Nothing to fancy, but it was a pretty new building and had a big garden in the back.

When they said they buried their dead in clay pots it was hard for me to visualize, but then they took care of that for me!  Apparently the dead were buried in the clay pots with all sorts of tools and other pots just in case they needed them later.

Once we exited the Neolithic room there was a room full of class cases that contained small things that had been excavated.  A lot of it was buried with the dead in the clay pots at various sites.

I loved this owl.  It’s just a piece of pottery, which I’m always amazed at seeing so intact and still painted, but I absolutely love the owl.  There was a t-shirt in the gift shop with the owl on it and I sort of regret not purchasing it.  Maybe I can go back later and pick one up.

What would a museum visit be without some sort of phallic symbol?  It’s a penis tree.  That’s all I have to really say I think.

After the small artifact and clay pot room we hit the mother lode.  This was my favorite part of the museum – the sculpture room.

Everything was displayed brilliantly.  The color on the walls made the white marble look stunning and each statue had enough space to really be admired.  A really cool feature was the lighting.  There was a sensor on the front of each stand that would illuminate the sculpture as you got closer.  It was really cool.

The use of shadow was big in the displays too which gave it an eerie life like appearance that I really enjoyed.  There were two full rooms of sculptures and a small part of a room dedicated to some mosaics. 

I took this because we finally found someone taller than Bryan.  He thinks I took it because he felt as though he was looking in a mirror.

Most everything was labeled.  We saw a lot of Hadrian and some Roman gods.  Bryan said he was impressed with how they knew who the statue was supposed to be of based on a few pieces or signs located on the statue.  I explained the carbon dating, documentation, and how the location of those pieces all plays a factor… then we walked into this room of unidentified heads.

“Head of Man”.  This was a really detailed head not to have it known.  Wouldn’t that be the ultimate kick in the pants.  You commission this great statue of yourself, it’s beautifully detailed, and then thousands of years later get tagged “Head of Man” in a museum among other less brilliant busts.

Sadly her case is the same.  This looks like it would be a goddess of some sort.  Again to spend the money to honor someone and then not even have it recognized in the future would be a shame.

I do believe this was labeled “The Three Stooges”. 

There were a bunch of relief panels like this one that came off of a theater in Perge I think.  I get the lion eating the man, that is obvious, what I don’t get though is that all of the men depicted have tentacle like legs.  You can see the scales if you look closely at this picture.

After the three rooms of amazing Roman art and marble work there was a staircase that led up to a room of hodge podge.  Artifacts from the crusades, byzantine art from Greek Orthodox churches, and a whole display of clay pots that were being transported in a ship that sank.  One thing we kept noticing when reading about different artifacts and things is that there was terrible security at the excavation sites.  A vast majority of the plaques stated that during the excavations pieces or things were looted and shipped across to America where it’s on display in Museum X and the Turkish government is in the process of trying to get it back.  Somebody in America bought it for a price, then the museum in America bought it for more of a price from that guy, but it’s sort of lame that we have to borrow stolen culture from other countries to fill our museums.  The British are apparently much worse.  The London Museum is full of stuff from all over, but I at least sort of understand that considered they have had their hand in the formation of a lot of countries on this side of the world… even if it isn’t really theirs to take.

One thing the Americans and British don’t have at Santa Clauses teeth. The relics of St. Nicholas were located by the byzantine art.  He was apparently born somewhere in Turkey and they managed to keep a jaw bone – with tooth, and quite a few of his other bones.  It was sort of fun to see this close to the holiday season.

We weren’t sure when we would actually see more Turkish artifacts.  We had seen Neolithic, Roman, Greek Orthodox, Christian, but we were in a Turkish museum and wanted to see some Turkish stuff too.  Then through the doorway… tada! 

I couldn’t find a plaque that said where this actually was.  I’m assuming it was on a wall or building of some sort and stated who commissioned it or had some catching saying on it.  I only say thing because it looks like the Prince Aladdin dedication on Hadrian’s Gate.

There was a whole case of ancient leather bound copies of the Koran and other religious artifacts. 

As Bryan put it, we got to window shop.  Sort of like the First Lady exhibit at the Smithsonian, there were two cases of ceremonial clothing with all sorts of elaborately decorated dresses, scarves, and as you can see here shoes.  Imagine walking around in those… Oi!

After enjoying all of the rug displays, ceramics, and a carriage we went to the gift shop!  It was a pretty good one compared to some of the other ones I have seen at the end of museums.   We sat at a table outside and enjoyed a cola while watching the clouds being blown in with the wind.

There was a garden outside that had cannons, peacocks, and lions like this one.  Some habits never die.

By the time we were done at the museum it was still a little early before going back to the hotel and getting ready for dinner, but it was a bit too chilly to walk around so we decided to take a trolley ride!  For 1.25TL you can ride the trolley which starts at the museum and goes into town and ends at the end of the street we had walked on the day before.  It’s a cable car set up that makes stops along the way and seems like the perfect mode of transportation if you live alone the line.

This is what the beach was looking like when we exited the museum… the sky was getting angry too.

Bryan sitting on the edge of a cliff.  This is a fun artsy photo.

Public transportation is so much fun sometimes!

Bryan wanted to go out for a nice dinner that night so we wandered back to the hotel and got dressed for dinner.  I got to wear my dress and shoes a second time and we got into a taxi and at the recommendation of the hotel ended up at the Shakespeare Bistro.  It reminded us of a Cheesecake Factory.  The food was alright, but the two bottles of wine we had were delicious.  The guy gave us a funny look when we ordered a second, and we were reminded yet again that this was a Muslim country.  It was really good wine though, we were having a great conversation, and had to take a taxi back anyway so why not?

It was the perfect ending to yet another wonderful day.

On the way to the taxi stand by the restaurant, Bryan was reminded why this trip's motto was "Watch your head!"