Carpet Museum

The Carpet Museum was first opened on April 29, 1979, at the Sultanahmet Mosque’s Hünkar Kasrı, but it was reopened in the public soup kitchen of the Hagia Sophia which was built between 1742 and 1743 in the northern part of the Hagia Sophia by Sultan Mahmud I. The museum is a devoted to the Turkish art of carpet and rug and it has one of the world’s richest carpet collections which include 806 carpets from 14^th to 20^th centuries and 46 rugs. The museum is split into 3 sections. The first room features early Anatolian-era carpets as well as best-known type of Turkish carpets which are from Uşak city. The second room displays rugs and Central and East Anatolian carpets from the Ottoman era. The third room has the most impressive collection, with a huge 17^th century Uşak carpet from the Suleymaniye Mosque and another 19^th century carpet from the Blue Mosque.