Adana Archaeology Museum

ADANA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM

History of the Adana Museum

Adana Museum was established in 1924, right after the proclamation of the Republic, and is one of the ten oldest museums in Türkiye. The museum, which was first established by collecting the column capitals and sarcophagi from the surrounding area in the Police Department, was opened to visitors in 1928 in the Madrasa of the now demolished Cafer Pasha Mosque, at the beginning of Taşköprü, as a result of the appointment of Halil Kamil Bey as the director and his successful work. In 1950, it was moved to Kuruköprü Memorial Museum in Kuruköprü, which was used as an Ethnography Museum for a while. 

The museum building, which was opened to visitors on January 05, 1972, and served for many years, needed a new museum building due to the preservation and concealment of cultural assets and insufficient exhibition. As a result of the studies on the new museum area, it was found appropriate to restore the "National Textile Factory", one of the city’s first factories, located in the Döşeme Mahallesi of Adana Province Seyhan District, to be evaluated as the Adana New Museum Complex. Within the scope of the Adana New Museum Complex I. Stage, which was started to be built in 2013 within the investment programs of our Ministry, the exhibition and arrangement works of the Archeology Museum were completed and it was opened to visitors on May 18, 2017. 

 Adana Archeology Museum, which was opened to visitors after its construction was completed, has eight halls where the life adventure of man from the prehistoric period to the present is explained with the help of information texts, visuals, dioramas, and animations. Prehistoric period artifacts, statues from the Hittite, Assyrian, Archaic, Hellenistic, Roman, Eastern Roman, Seljuk, and Ottoman periods, sarcophagi, steles, stone artifacts such as altars and busts, glass, various pots made of terracotta and bronze terracotta and bronze oil lamps and figurines cylinder-stamp seals glass, bronze and gold jewelry and other archaeological finds are located in the halls. Among the exhibited artifacts, especially the stone statue of the Hittite Storm God Tarhunda, the Anatolian Hieroglyphic Inscription Stele, the Babylonian Stele, the bronze Male Statue unearthed in the Karataş District of Adana, and the Roman marble “Anthropoid Sarcophagus” and “Achilleus Sarcophagus” draw attention.

Milli Mensucat Factory

Our city was founded in 1906 by Aristidi Kozma Simyonoğlu in Seyhan District, around Döşeme Mahallesi and the old station. One of Adana's oldest industrial institutions, the "National Textile Factory", has started to transform it into a Museum Complex within the scope of 2013 investment programs of our Ministry, and when it is completed, it will have the title of being the largest museum complex in Türkiye and the Middle East.  

The factory, which was opened as “Simyanoğlu Factory” by Aristidi Kozma in 1907, changed hands in 1924 and was named “National Factory”. Upon Atatürk's instructions to revitalize the derelict factories in Adana, the businessmen of the period Mustafa Özgür, Nuri Has and Seyit Tekin bought the factory from the treasury and changed its name to "National Mensucat". During this period, the "Aslan" brand and extra yarns produced in the factory were in great demand throughout the country. In 1944, Hacı Ömer Sabancı became one of the partners of the factory. The factory, which was transferred to the treasury again in 1978 due to its accumulated debts and whose production was interrupted, was reopened in 1983 and its name was changed to "Milsan Mensucat". 

Milli Mensucat Factory is one of the first organizations in Türkiye to provide its employees with wide opportunities other than public organizations during the period. While it was an establishment where one hot meal was given to its employees a day, and lodgings were created for families and singles to stay, with an infirmary within the factory and a fifty-bed hospital next to the factory, all kinds of diseases of the workers were treated and free treatment was provided, including surgical interventions. 

The factory, which is a school for the Adana industry, has also been a source of inspiration for Turkish Literature. One of the important literary works of the writer Orhan KEMAL, whose 100th anniversary was celebrated in 2013 with a series of events, the book "Bekçi Murtaza" was inspired by the factory. The main character in Kemal's famous novel “Murtaza”, who was a civil servant at the Milli Mensucat Factory at one time of his life, is a night watchman at the factory. 

When the works of the National Textile Factory and Adana Museum Complex are completed, it is aimed to become the largest museum in Türkiye and the Middle East. The complex, which will consist of Archeology, Mosaic, Ethnography, Agriculture, Industry, and City Museums, is also planned to include an open-air cinema, cafeteria, and restaurants along with exhibition and conference halls.