Trakya University's Natural History Museum in Edirne opened to visitors on 7 January 2023. Everything shown is an original specimen, prepared to museum standards by the university's biology department, and the university states that no hunting was involved in obtaining them.
On display are 1,923 specimens representing 754 species, collected from across the country but weighted towards the biological richness of Thrace: invertebrates and insects, molluscs, plants, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The scientific data for each is given in Turkish and English on information panels and on a touchscreen.
Behind the galleries sits a much larger research collection in the biology department's stores — more than 100,000 insect specimens, 2,000 identified insect species, over 1,000 skeletons and mounted vertebrates, and 25,000 plant specimens in an international herbarium. It serves visiting researchers and supplies the material that keeps the displays alive.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Edirne as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 2.8 °C in January to 24.8 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (71 mm) and lightest in August (23 mm). Long-term means for 1930-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
