The Great Palace Mosaics Museum is located within the Arasta Market in the Sultanahmet Mosque Complex. The museum, which was created to include the partially intact mosaic flooring in the northeastern part of the porticoed courtyard of the Grand Palace from the Eastern Roman Period, is a unit of the Hagia Sophia Museum.

The mosaics exhibited in the Great Palace Mosaics Museum, dated between 450-550 AD, are magnificent both artistically and in terms of the richness of the depicted scenes. Only 180 m² of the mosaic area, which was probably prepared by many master artists under the direction of the leading masters of that age, has been unearthed. Mosaic stones are approximately 5 mm in size and consist of limestone, terracotta and colored stones. The depictions are in the "Opus Vermiculatum" style and are placed between pieces of marble. "Fish scale" technique was applied to the white marble parts in the background. In addition, the depictions that make up the mosaic are surrounded by contours.

Religious subjects are not found in mosaics. Themes are taken from daily life, nature and mythology. These include scenes depicting a griffon eating a lizard, the fight between an elephant and a lion, a mare nursing her foal, children herding geese, a man milking a goat, a child feeding his donkey, a young girl carrying a jug, bears eating apples, and the fight with a hunter tiger.

The Great Palace Mosaics Museum was connected to the Istanbul Archaeological Museums in 1953. Since 1979, it has been a unit affiliated with the Hagia Sophia Museum Directorate.

If you would like to be accompanied by an experienced guide during your tour of the Istanbul Mosaic Museum, you can contact us.

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