Silifke Museum

Silifke Museum is an archaeological and ethnographic museum in Silifke district of Mersin Province, southern Turkey. Established in 1973, it houses collections spanning from the Neolithic period through the Ottoman era, with particular strengths in Hellenistic coinage, regional sculpture, and Yörük ethnographic material. The museum serves as the principal repository for archaeological finds from the ancient region of Cilicia, including the nearby ancient city of Seleukia on the Kalykadnos.

The museum's holdings comprise 29,775 archaeological items, 1,410 ethnographic objects, 15,875 coins, and 77 seals. The archaeological material ranges from the Neolithic period through Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman times. The numismatic collection is especially significant, highlighted by a Hellenistic hoard of over 5,000 silver coins discovered in 1980 on the slopes of Meydancıkkale, including issues of Alexander the Great and the Diadochi Seleukos Nikator, Lysimachos, Demetrios, and Antigones Gonatas. The ethnographic collection focuses primarily on Yörük life and material culture. Finds come from numerous regional sites including Olba, Diokaisareia (Uzuncaburç), the Corycian Caves (Cennet ve Cehennem), Cambazlı, Aphrodisias in Cilicia (Yeşilovacık), Kelenderis (Aydıncık), Korasion (Atakent), Korykos (Kızkalesi), Meydancıkkale, and Seleukia itself.

Among the museum's signature works are two caryatid fragments from a 6th-century mausoleum found at the foot of the citadel hill at Meydancıkkale. The ground-floor sculpture showroom displays various stone works including statues, stelae, a sarcophagus, and reliefs, while the upper floor houses ceramics and glass. The coin collection features the Meydancıkkale hoard with its Hellenistic silver issues. The museum also preserves Luvian Hellenistic coins of approximately the 5th century BC from Meydancık Castle, about 80 kilometres west of Silifke. The ethnographic rooms display handicrafts, ornaments, and material related to Yörük nomadic culture.

The museum building stands on two floors at the eastern edge of Silifke, along Taşucu Caddesi near the D-400 highway toward Antalya. The structure contains four exhibition rooms: a ground-floor space for sculptures, a first-floor room dedicated to Yörük ethnography, and two additional rooms for handicrafts, ornaments, jewelry, and coins. The museum garden displays large stonemasonry items in an open-air setting, including column capitals and drums, stelae, frieze fragments, inscription blocks from Roman through Islamic periods, sarcophagi, and pithoi. This arrangement of architectural fragments in the yard complements the indoor galleries and allows for the display of heavy stone material that cannot easily be moved indoors.

Silifke Museum is located in Silifke district of Mersin Province in southern Turkey, along the D-400 highway toward Antalya. It is owned by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey. The museum maintains a website at www.silifkemuzesi.gov.tr. The institution continues to serve as an active archaeological repository and research center for the Cilicia region, participating in excavations and conservation work while maintaining public exhibition galleries.