Samsun Museum, formerly called the Samsun Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, stands in the city centre near the provincial governor's office and shows works of the Chalcolithic, Early Bronze Age, Hittite, Hellenistic, Roman and Ottoman periods recovered in Samsun and the country around it.
Construction began in 1976 and the building opened on 19 May 1981. Stone works that had previously stood in the open in the courtyard of the Samsun motor trade school and technical lycée — marble columns, capitals, stelae and a lion statue in particular — were taken under cover in this way.
The museum has two sections. The archaeological section shows works reaching from the Chalcolithic to the Roman period. The ethnographic section holds bindallı gowns, towels, purses for money and watches, manuscript Qur'ans, ornaments, weapons, kitchen implements, carpets and kilims. In the museum garden are works of the Classical, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Samsun as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 7.2 °C in February to 23.7 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in November (83 mm) and lightest in July (35 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
Visiting hours
- Hours
- 08:30 - 17:00
