Turkey's Most Comprehensive Automobile and Motorcycle Museum: Key Museum
Opened in 2015 in the Torbalı district of İzmir, Key Museum is now Turkey's most comprehensive museum of classic cars and motorcycles, shedding light on the history of the automobile worldwide. Born out of the passion for cars shared by Murat and Selim Özgörkey, the museum covers an area of 7,000 square meters and its main collection consists of 89 cars and 46 motorcycles. In this main collection, visitors can trace the journey of the first models from leading automotive brands such as Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Cadillac, and Ford, from the first automobile produced in 1886 to the present day. In addition to these, the museum houses over 2,000 model cars of various scales, more than 300 car mascots (hood ornaments), car-themed scarves, and an original Shell Gas Station constructed using equipment collected from the early 1900s to the 1960s.
Murat Özgörkey, who started collecting matchboxes as a child and continued his interest in model cars in the 90s, and became a collector over time, and Selim Özgörkey, a rally driver who was also a racetrack driver with a passion for motorsports, started acquiring the pieces in Key Museum in 2001 and have built a collection that grows every day. Since its establishment, the museum has been working with the mission of being a center of attraction not only for automobile enthusiasts but also for those who want to trace the history of the world through the world of automobiles. It is one of the few automobile museums in the world in terms of both content and exhibition space, and houses models that are a must-have in a collection and have made a place in world history. Key Museum, which is in an important position for world museology, also has a serious accumulation and content for Turkish museology, which is in a period of change and development.
Considering the tourism potential of the Aegean Region, the museum provides an important added value to the region and is located on the same route as the ancient city of Ephesus. This location is also 10 km from Torbalı, where the ancient city of Metropolis is located. Another advantage of the museum is that it can be reached in 20-25 minutes from Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport and 30 minutes from Izmir city center. Since its opening, the museum has been an important travel destination for tens of thousands of visitors from both Turkey and abroad. Key Museum, which has been awarded the certificate of excellence by TripAdvisor for 4 consecutive years thanks to the positive feedback it has received from visitors about the museum experience, is at the forefront of the list of places to visit in Izmir.