After breakfast we will visit the Underground Cistern, the largest of the many underground cisterns built during the Byzantine Empire to supply the city with water. This cistern is especially fascinating because the Byzantine builders recycled many stone structures - capital heads and columns-- that had been used in earlier temples. Now an upside down Medusa stares out at us from her watery home. Istanbul Archaeological Museums are a compound of museums which consist three major sections; The Archaeology Museum, The Museum of the Ancient Orient, The TiledKiosk Museum. These three separate main units are located in the same garden and house the palace collections formed during the late 19th century by museum director, master painter ("The TortoiseTrainer" / Pera Museum) and archaeologist Osman Hamdi Bey . İstanbul Archaeological Museum, which is first regular museum appearing in the history of OttomanEmpire and in Türkiye, has about a millionartifacts from a variety of cultures, brought from theimperiallands.Theinterest in collecting historical artifacts in the Ottoman period dates back to the reign of Mehmet the Conqueror, but the institutional emergence of museums coincides with the establishment of İstanbul Archaeological Museums in 1869 as Müze-i Hümayun (Imperial Museum).
Müze-i Humayun, housing the archaeological works collected in the Hagia Irene Church, is the foundation of the İstanbul Archaeological Museum. The Tiled Kiosk built during the reign of Mehmet the Conqueror, was converted into a museum because of the insufficiency of Hagia Irene. The Tiled Kiosk which is still under the administration of İstanbul Archaeological Museum, was restored and opened its doors in 1880.
