The Rahmi M. Koç Museum is a private industrial museum situated along the northern shore of the Golden Horn in the Hasköy suburb of Istanbul, Turkey. Established in 1991 and opened in December 1994, the venue is dedicated to preserving the history of transportation, industry, and communications. Its creation was inspired by a visit to the Henry Ford Museum in the United States, and the institution displays items selected largely from the personal collection of Rahmi M. Koç, alongside borrowed and donated objects.
The museum complex encompasses two historic, restored buildings located opposite each other on the same street. The first section, known as the Lengerhane, was constructed during the eighteenth century as an Ottoman Navy foundry for anchor and chain casting. Featuring a glass-sided ramp leading down to a basement gallery, this heritage structure was restored over two and a half years following serious roof fire damage. Directly along the waterfront stands the second facility, a dockyard built in 1861 for ship maintenance by the maritime firm Şirket-i Hayriye, which opened to visitors in July 2001 to expand the display area.
Exhibits inside the complex feature original machines, functional replicas, and scientific instruments. The land transport collection includes a range of historical automobiles, commercial and utility vehicles, motorcycles, an old Istanbul tram, a Tünel carriage, and an 1867 Sultan's train carriage. Marine holdings showcase Bosphorus passenger ferryboats, lifeboats, outboard motors, an amphibious vehicle, and the historic sloop Kısmet, which completed a circumnavigation of the globe. The aviation section features aircraft, engines, parts, and scale models.
Additional galleries cover mechanical engineering, scientific apparatus, and communications history, displaying devices such as a historic olive oil factory, stationary steam engines, rotary dial telephones, phonographs, an 1876 telegraph patent model, grand orreries, and marine chronometers. Interactive exhibits invite visitors to examine cutaway vehicles, domestic goods, and hands-on scientific experiments. The museum welcomes the public every day except Monday. Sister venues operating under the same name are also located in Ankara and on Cunda Island.
See the full Istanbul travel guide for where to stay, the best time to visit and the top things to do.