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Istanbul Military MuseumIstanbul Military Museum (Turkish: Askeri Müze) is dedicated to one thousand years of Turkish military history. It is one of the leading museums of its kind in the world. The museum is open to the public everyday except Mondays and Tuesdays.
The military museum and culture center was reopened at its present building in 1993 with a very successful and contemporary exhibition concept. Today in 22 rooms about nine thousand pieces from the Ottoman era through World War II are exhibited, out of a total collection of fifty thousand objects. It holds striking historical treasures such as the chain, which the Byzantines stretched across the mouth of the Golden Horn to keep out the Sultan's navy in 1453 during the siege of Constantinople. The east wing of the museum is used for temporary exhibitions, meetings and similar activities. On the ground floor, the display of bows and arrows in the first room is followed by sections containing the weapons and other regalia of the cavalry, curved daggers and lancets carried by foot soldiers in the The Janissary Band "Mehter Takımı", world’s oldest military band gives concerts of march music in traditional uniforms each afternoon. The Ottomans was the first to bring musicians on campaign and to integrate music into the life and work of the army. After a town had been conquered, the Mehter preceded the conquering Ottoman commander on a procession through the town, playing slow-cadence marches in exotic minor modes. The boom of kettledrums, invented by the Mehter, the wail of oboes and clash of cymbals, another Turkish invention was meant to glorify the conquest and impress upon the populace that they were now part of an entirely different civilization.
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