Magic Ice istanbul is world’s first ice museum in a warm climate located in Forum Shopping Mall.
As Istanbul readies for summer, one of the first permanent ice museums in a warm climate opened its doors April 23 National Sovereignty & Children’s Day, set to be a cold “heaven” for those who want to escape the city’s heat.
The Magic Ice Museum was realized with an investment of $20 million by the Lofoten Trading Company from Norway, where ice museums have become an art.
The Magic Ice Museum covers 1,400 square meters. Visitors will wear special Eskimo-style clothes and enter the museum through an ice tunnel. The museum’s interior temperature will be kept at minus 5 degrees Celsius in both winter and summer.
Some 70 tons of ice were brought from the River Torne in Sweden’s Jukkasjarvi region to make the museum’s ice statues, while its walls and tunnels were made with 100 tons of ice provided by Istanbul. The museum was conceived by the designers and sculptors of the Ice Hotel in Sweden.
The first section of the museum explains the Vikings’ 880 visit to Istanbul to visitors, who are provided with information through writings on sheets of ice. The information states that the first Vikings, who came to Istanbul over the Black Sea, used the name “Miklagard,” which means “protected lands,” for the city. A Runic writing, which belonged to a Viking soldier named Halvdan, has been found on the walls of the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul.
The museum also holds an eight-meter boat and a house made of ice, as well as a map of the first Vikings’ travels.
The two other sections of the museum include information about Scandinavian nature and an ice vitamin bar, where visitors are offered fruit juice in ice glasses.
The “Magic Ice” museum is located inside the Forum Istanbul shopping mall in Bayrampasa district near the Bus Station (Otogar), next to the Turquazoo Aquarium.
Istanbul is doing its best to stimulate culture with new museums, such as the openings of the Panorama 1453 History Museum and the History of Islamic Science and Technology Museum. The city will establish a water museum, an Akeopark and a planetarium in the near future.
Address:
Magic Ice Istanbul
Kocatepe Mah. Pasa Cad B1 Blok No:2
Istanbul Forum Avm
Bayrampasa – Istanbul
34045 Turkey
Open:
Mon – Sun: 10:00 am – 10:00 pm