Vorderasiatisches Museum (Middle Eastern Museum)

Vorderasiatisches Museum – © Pierre Adenis

The Vorderasiatische Museum (Middle Eastern Museum) is one of the most significant museums of oriental objects of antiquity in the world. Located in the Pergamon Museum on the Museum Island, it imparts, on 2,000 square metres of exhibition space, an impression of the 6,000-year span of history, culture and art in the Middle East.

Besides vases, vessels, jewellery, instruments, clay and stone reliefs, tiles and small plaster works out of the Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and North Syrian/East Anatolian regions—the present day Iraq Syria and Turkey—above all, the reproductions of monumental constructions are among the highlights of the museum: the Processional Way, the Ishtar Gate and the façade of the throne hall of King Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC).

The original glazed bricks were put together from a multitude of fragments, in order that parts of the constructions could be rebuilt in close to original size.