Founded on June 30, 2001, Miniaturk, Turkey's first miniature park, was opened to visitors on May 2, 2003 with a grand ceremony by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Built on a total area of 60 thousand square meters, Miniaturk has a model area of 15 thousand square meters, a green and open area of 40 thousand square meters, an indoor area of 3,500 square meters, a pool and waterway of 2,000 square meters, and a parking lot for 500 vehicles. Miniaturk, which was completed in a short period of 22 months thanks to the project coordination carried out simultaneously, is the miniature city with the largest model area in the world and completed in the shortest time.

In Miniaturk, where 1/25 scale models of selected artifacts from Turkey and the Ottoman geography are exhibited, 57 artifacts from Istanbul, 51 artifacts from Anatolia and 12 artifacts from the Ottoman geography outside the borders of Turkey today, a total of 120 fixed artifacts are exhibited. However, reserve areas have also been created in consideration of future additions. The infrastructure has also been organized in consideration of future additions. In a sense, Miniaturk will continue to grow by setting an example for planned urbanization. The models were produced in a total of 13 workshops, 10 in Turkey and 3 abroad. In addition to the workshops, production for Miniaturk was also carried out at Yıldız Technical University and Dokuz Eylül University Revolving Fund Enterprises. Plastic-based materials used in the industry and suitable for open-air conditions were used in model construction. Before the models were placed in their places, they were kept in the Miniaturk Test Area and their suitability for outdoor conditions was tested once again.

In the park, where the traces of many cultures and civilizations from Hagia Sophia to Selimiye, from Rumeli Fortress to Galata Tower, from Safranbolu Houses to Sümeli (Sümela) Monastery, from Kubbet-üs Sahra to the ruins of Mount Nemrut, artifacts such as the Temple of Artemis, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and the Ecyad Castle, which are no longer in their places today, have also been revived. Every civilization that ruled in Anatolia and its surroundings and left traces has been taken care to be included in Miniaturk. With Miniaturk, the traces of 3 thousand years of life, from Antiquity to Byzantium, from the Seljuks to the Ottomans, have been carried to the shores of the Golden Horn. The selection of the works to be included in Miniaturk was made by a committee under the consultancy of Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Haluk Dursun. In the selection process, care was taken to ensure that the artifacts were of a quality that could be modeled, and each of them reflects the technology, art and culture to which they belong, and in a geography that has witnessed heavy invasions, wars and destruction for thousands of years, the artifacts that no civilization has protected, repaired and kept alive, without attempting to destroy them just because the previous ones did it, are included in Miniaturk with their models.