Guide
The kilim museum is underneath the Sultan Ahmed mosque — literally. It occupies the vaulted basement built under the mosque's qibla wall on the south front, a structure that also serves as a retaining wall, next to the south-west minaret; the way in is through the garden on the south side of the mosque and then a plain door, and the long arched gallery inside takes its air and light through slit windows. The space was built between 1609 and 1617 for Sultan Ahmed I by the architect Sedefkâr Mehmet Ağa, and in its early years it is known to have been used as a store.
It has been run by the directorate general of foundations as a museum of kilims and flatweaves since 1982, with some five hundred pieces of museum quality on its inventory: kilims and flatweaves particular to various regions of Anatolia, Ottoman palace kilims and tent kilims, and examples of the traditional zili, cicim and sumak techniques. The district authorities record the museum as temporarily closed for repair because of heavy damp, so check before making a special trip.
