The Istanbul Archaeological Museums are three buildings inside the outer gardens of Topkapı Palace: the main archaeological hall, the Museum of the Ancient Orient and the Tiled Kiosk of 1472.
The collection was assembled largely by Osman Hamdi Bey, painter and archaeologist, who founded the museum in 1891 and excavated the royal necropolis at Sidon. The Alexander Sarcophagus he brought back is the single object most people come for — a fourth-century BC marble carved with battle and hunt scenes that still carry traces of their original paint.
Elsewhere there is the Treaty of Kadesh, the oldest known peace treaty, and glazed lions from the Ishtar Gate of Babylon.
Closed Mondays, otherwise open from 09:00; allow two hours. From The Soul Hotel it is about half an hour by tram and a short walk uphill through Gülhane Park.