Abstract: Photoelectric UBV and photographic BV photometry of stars in the open cluster NGC 6259 have been used to determine the reddening, distance and age of this object. It has a colour excess E(B–V) = 0.65 ± 0m.01 and true distance modulus (m–M)0 = 11m.3 ± 0m.3. Its age is about 2 × 108 yr. The cluster is closely similar to M11 in age and in the details of the colour–magnitude diagram.