Visitors throng museums, historic sites in Turkey

Nearly 878,000 people visited Turkish museums and archaeological sites in January, up 57 percent from the same month last year, the Culture and Tourism Ministry announced Tuesday.

In addition to visitors, museum and historic sites also took in more revenue, said the ministry website.

In January revenues from Turkish museums and archaeological sites totaled 14.5 million Turkish liras ($3.84 million), skyrocketing 236 percent from the same month in 2017.

January's most-visited places in Turkey were Istanbul's Topkapi Palace Museum and Hagia Sophia Museum, the Mevlana Rumi Museum in the central province of Konya, Denizli Hierapolis (Pamukkale) in the western province of Denizli, and the ancient city of Ephesus in the Aegean province of Izmir.

Meanwhile sales of the Müzekart (a general admission card to museums and historic sites) in January ballooned 167 percent compared to January 2017.

This January, revenue from Müzekart sales totaled 3.6 million Turkish liras ($965,000).

Since 2008, when it was first offered, some 59,000 museum cards have been sold.

Müzekart enables people to visit at least 300 ministry-affiliated museums and archaeological sites and is valid for one year.

A Müzekart+ currently costs 50 Turkish liras ($13) and can be bought online as well as at Müzekart sales points.