My wife and I spent some days in Turkey and, among several places, decided to visit Buyukada and Heibeliada islands. While both islands are full of great nature and views, we also decided to make a brief stop at Adalar Müzesi, or Museum of the Princes’ Islands.
It is a small but charming museum with masses of visual information, videos and photographs, telling the stories of life on Bukuyada through the ages – including historical, cultural, natural and societal topics. It took us about one hour and we learned lots of interesting history (right back to prehistoric times) and more recent background to the Princes Islands. The exhibitions are well articulated, utilising expressive and original physical structure to accentuate the messages.
The images below highlight part of the information and objects that captured my attention.
skeleton was in cartilage and they lack real teeth. Nevertheless, they have a cephalic shield covering the head and the shoulders. This feature explains their vernacular name, the cuirassed fishes. Dunkleosteus had dental plates instead of real teeth. Anyway, these structures were very strong and cutting. They allowed it to
cut down its victims to better swallowing them.
Since When Have The Islands’ Names Been Known? This is one of the pieces of information presented in the museum: “The famous philosopher Aristotle is acknowledged to be the first person to mention the Princes Islands (384-322 BC). A person called Demonesos explained that he mined copper and malachite in the Demonesos Island near Kadiköy. The Demonesos Island is Heybeliada, which was named after the person who discovered the mine there. Byzantine historian Stephanos Byzantinos (6th-century AD) wrote that Artemidoros (104-101 BC) had mentioned for the first time the names of the Princes
Islands: “Khalkitis (Heybeliada) is an island opposite Khalkedon (Kadiköy) which has a copper mine. There are also the islands of Pityodes and Prota.”
If you are visiting the island for the first time, a short visit to the museum is totally worth. A nice walk, views and, most important, interesting learnings and information about the island’s history.
Marco Serrato 
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