Salt Online Audio Guides

One of the opening exhibitions at SALT Galata, Scramble for the Past: A Story of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, 1753-1914 presents the rich and intricate story of archaeology in the Near East in a chronological narrative around selected archaeological sites. Exploring archaeological activities in social, cultural and political contexts across a wide geographical area that spans from Greece to Egypt, the exhibition examines local and foreign archaeological initiatives undertaken in the land of the Ottoman Empire over a period of nearly two centuries. Taking the inauguration of the British Museum, the first museum in the modern sense of the word, as a starting point and following the development of the Museum of Islamic Pious Foundations in the Ottoman Empire (today’s Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts), the exhibition explores transformations in the historical narrative of the Ottoman Empire in parallel to studies focusing on Western interest in “the cultural heritage of the classical era.” Principal mat