In recent years, the gulf of Antalya, with a coastal strip of some 200 km with bays and coves of exceptional beauty filled with the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean, has become one of the most popular tourist resorts in Turkey. The coastal plain is covered with banana plantations and orchards of citrous fruit, as well as pine forests and groves of palm trees.

The production of cotton on the fertile soil, the huge greenhouses and of course, tourism all contribute to local wealth and prosperity. Antalya also contains a number of summer-houses owned by residents in other parts of Turkey. Although the surrounding region has been inhabited for nearly 50.000 years, the center of the province of Antalya is a fairly recent settlement.


Here are preserved the most interesting of the findings discovered in the region, beautifully arranged in thirteen sections, with a large number of statues and excavations exhibited in the garden. All the well-preserved findings unearthed during the excavations carried out in the ancient cities around the region are brought here for exhibition. The museum contains an extraordinarily rich collection of objects ranging from prehistoric stone implements to statues of the gods, from Roman imperial sculpture to Roman and Greek coins, and from ancient floor mosaics to ethnographic artifacts of the Ottoman period.