Open: 9am-5pm (closed Mondays)
Admission: TL8
Audioguide: TL5 (excellent)
Contact info: 0342-325 2727, gaziantepmuzesi.gov.tr
Address: Hacı Sanı Konukoğlu Bulvarı
Transport: Buses to the Otogar (bus station) pass in front of the museum, dolmuşes to the Otogar within five minutes’ walk of it.
Opened in 2011, the Zeugma Museum in Gaziantep was purpose designed to showcase the magnificent mosaics rescued from the site of Belkis-Zeugma, to the east of the city, before most of it was drowned by the Birecik Dam.
Most of the mosaics come from villas named Poseidon, Euphrates and Dionysius after the subjects shown on them. Others come from a large Roman bathhouse on the site.
Although there are some mosiacs with magnificent geometric designs on them inevitably the ones that attract most attention are the figurative ones some of which have survived in an astonishingly good state of repair with hardly any of their tesserae lost. In a few cases damage was caused by later work on the site or by the action of the rising water. More frustrating to see are the mosaics that have been damaged by the deliberate action of art thieves, including the huge mosaic from which the famous head of a gypsy girl seems to have survived more or less by a miracle.
