700,000 visitors expected this year at the award-winning Troy Museum

The number of visitors to the Troy Museum, located at the entrance of the Ancient City of Troy in Çanakkale, could reach 700,000 this year.

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700,000 visitors expected this year at the award-winning Troy Museum

The museum, which welcomes visitors at the entrance of the Ancient City of Troy, where excavations have been ongoing for over 150 years within the borders of Tevfikiye village in Çanakkale, won the "2020/2021 European Museum Academy Special Award" following its "2020 European Museum of the Year Special Commendation."

Following the awards received from Europe, the museum and the archaeological site saw an increase in visitor numbers, with 487,309 people visiting in 2022.

The museum, which hosted 538,000 visitors in 2023, welcomed 25,000 people in the first two months of this year.

Troy Museum Director Rıdvan Gölcük stated in his remarks to reporters that interest in the museum is increasing more and more each year.

'THERE IS A 190 PERCENT INCREASE IN VISITOR NUMBERS'

Explaining that they were waiting for the visitor numbers in January 2023 with great curiosity and observed an increase of approximately 50 percent compared to the previous year, Gölcük said, "The period following the disaster experienced last year had gone beyond our expectations. However, we have made a very good start to 2024.

In February 2024, the Ancient City of Troy and the Troy Museum reached a total of 25,000 visitors. The Troy Museum saw a 190 percent increase in visitor numbers compared to the previous year. To date, the best, peak visitor number in Troy was achieved in 2019 with approximately 550,000 people. We repeated this figure in 2023. We had reached this best figure."

Pointing out that the number of visitors to the Troy Museum is increasing exponentially, Gölcük stated, "It appears that in 2024, we will reach approximately 700,000 visitors in Troy, thereby breaking the all-time visitor record. In 2023, a total of 538,000 visitors were reached. Our February data alone is 190 percent better than the previous year. An average of 30 percent higher visitor numbers is expected in the coming months. Therefore, it looks like we will reach 700,000 visitors."

ABOUT THE TROY MUSEUM

Construction of the Troy Museum began in 2013 within the scope of a project determined by a competition held by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Completed and opened to the public in October 2018, the museum is designed to be equal in height to the ancient city before excavation and consists of 10,000 square meters of indoor space, including 3,000 square meters of exhibition halls.

The museum exhibits very special pieces that have witnessed human history, primarily sculptures, sarcophagi, inscriptions, altars, milestones, axes and cutters, terracotta ceramics, metal vessels, gold, weapons, coins, bone objects and tools, glass bracelets, ornaments, figurines, glass and terracotta perfume bottles, and tear vials.

The Troy Museum's exhibition also includes coins depicting Homer from the İzmir Archaeology Museum, 24 pieces of gold jewelry of Trojan origin that were returned to Turkey from the Penn Museum in the USA in 2012 and are registered in the inventory of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, as well as the Polyxena sarcophagus and the Luwian seal.

Visitors, who begin their tour from the entrance ramp, follow a story divided into 7 sections. The sections classified as Archaeology of the Troas Region, Bronze Age of Troy, The Iliad Epic and the Trojan War, Troas and Ilion in the Ancient Period, Eastern Roman and Ottoman Periods, History of Archaeology, and Traces of Troy contain artifacts of importance to the world of archaeology.

News Source: 12punto