Qaitbay's armour and the Golden Horn chain
Two pieces of Mamluk and Byzantine history you would not expect to find in Mersin.
Nedim Ardoğa — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Cobija — CC0 · Cobija — CC0 · Cobija — CC0
A suit of tombak (gilded copper) armour attributed to the Mamluk sultan Qaitbay, carried home from Egypt after Selim I's campaign, sits in a glass case a hundred metres from the Mersin seafront. Near it hangs a section of the iron chain the Byzantines stretched across the Golden Horn to keep Mehmed the Conqueror's fleet out, and a small hall of marine fossils millions of years old. Those three surprises lift a small military museum well above the hall of ship models you might be bracing for. The museum was formally opened in July 2011 under the Turkish Naval Forces, the country's fourth naval museum after Istanbul, Çanakkale and İskenderun. It runs to three halls: the Barbaros main hall, roughly 450 square metres of ship models, uniforms, weapons and admirals' portraits from Piri Reis to Barbaros Hayreddin, laid out chronologically; the Ertuğrul hall and the Fossil hall; plus the interactive Nusret room, whose screens tell the stories of the cruiser Hamidiye, the ship of the line Mahmudiye and the minelayer Nusret. Outside on the lawn stand guns, a radar set, torpedoes, mines, depth charges, an anti-submarine rocket launcher and a submarine model, which is where children spend most of the visit. Allow 45 minutes to an hour. The halls are air-conditioned and on one level, so pushchairs are no trouble. One practical point matters more than any other: because the museum belongs to the navy rather than the Culture Ministry, the Müzekart is not valid at the door; tickets are bought on the spot for around 90 TL, the same price for Turks and foreigners, and foreign children under eight go in free (Turkish citizens under 18). It closes on Mondays and on the first day of each Eid. Treat it as one stop on a route rather than a destination. The Mersin Archaeological Museum shares the site, Muğdat Mosque, the city's largest, is across the boulevard, and the seafront promenade is a stone's throw away. On its own it would not justify a drive across town, but it is a pleasant hour on a baking August afternoon or a wet winter day when the corniche tempts nobody.
Two pieces of Mamluk and Byzantine history you would not expect to find in Mersin.
Guns, torpedoes, mines and a submarine model on the lawn, where children linger longest.
Screens telling the stories of the cruiser Hamidiye and the minelayer Nusret in a way that suits non-specialists.
Adnan Menderes Bulvarı, Gazi Mahallesi, Yenişehir, Mersin
With children, start with the naval museum: the outdoor hardware, ship models and interactive room keep them busy, whereas the archaeological museum is quieter and heavier going for small ones. Without children, the archaeological museum is the richer of the two and the naval one can be done in half an hour.
No. The museum belongs to the Naval Forces rather than the Culture Ministry, and the card only covers Ministry sites. Bring cash or a bank card; the ticket is cheap anyway, and your children under eight go in free.
