Guide
Batman Museum has three galleries — Palaeolithic-Neolithic, Ilısu and Hasankeyf — holding some 500 objects that run from the Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages. The arrangement follows the museum's own work: it directs seven rescue excavations at mounds in Batman and Siirt provinces that will be submerged by the Ilısu dam, and much of what is on display came out of them.
The piece the museum names as its most important is a set of gaming stones found at Başur Höyük. Beside them stand the standing stone from Gusir Höyük, the bronze grave goods from Başur, and a figure of the god Bes from Hasankeyf.
The building carries the working side of the museum with it: a projection room in the gallery where documentaries about its excavations can be watched, a library of archaeology, culture and art history, and a laboratory where finds from the digs are conserved.
The garden holds the Museum Park, which the museum describes as the first project of its kind in Türkiye. Historical living spaces have been built there so that visitors learn by doing rather than by reading labels — house models from the Gusir and Gre Amer mounds excavated for the Ilısu project, the burial customs found at Başur, Gre Amer and Kuriki, the Başur gaming stones, the Artuqid gate of Hasankeyf, a medieval living space from Hasankeyf, and examples of recent village life. There are also practice excavation areas where school groups of any age can be shown how archaeological digging actually works.
The museum opens 08:00 to 17:00, with the ticket desk closing at 16:30, and is closed on Mondays. Entry is free.
