Archeological Site of Zeugma

The Turkish authorities really dropped the ball on this one. No protection for decades meant looting and damage from nature, which was obviously accelerated by building a damn that would flood the site! Once the site got flooded they still tried to rescue mosaics but many were damaged badly, some are surely still underwater.

Going to the site isn't too spectacular. It has a building with rooms and some basic mosaic floors, all not really worth the entrance ticket even though it's cheap, but gives you an idea how the original site was.

The must visit is the Zeugma mosaic museum which claims to be biggest in the world. It's grande alright, with huge mosaic floors lifted and placed on floors and walls with fake surroundings to stand in for the lack of scenery. It's a great visit - and I love mosaics, and surely the highlight is the Mona Lisa of mosaics: gypsy girl. I love gypsy girl and the presentation is so eery, that gives it a special feel. A guard will only let in one person/group at a time. You walk through a dark winding corridor and step into a completely dark room with the mosaic at the end. As you walk closer the zoom in effect in the dark leaves a lasting effect. A guard will ensure you are not being naughty and try to touch the exhibit. There wasn't a time limit for me as only a handful of people were in the …

Before I started planning our 2015 trip to Turkey I hadn’t knowingly heard of the T List site of Zeugma but it emerged first when, in order to inform my route decisions, I looked at some advertised “group journeys” to the area and they all included the Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep. My immediate reaction was “Oh yes – another “filler” excursion to a minor regional museum to pad out the day!” It soon became clear, however, that this museum was far more than that. But what about the actual site of Zeugma itself?

It is situated around 55kms east of the sprawling city of Gaziantep (Pop 1.5 mill) – to find it on a map you may need to search for its current Turkish name of Belkis and this name was used prominently on the signs off the Sanliurfa – Gaziantep motorway. We hadn’t originally intended bothering with it, but its recent history and its links to the Mosaic museum which we had decided to visit, convinced us that we should divert off the highway and see it – it took us a bit over an hour.

The “recent” significance of the site is that, in the year 2000, a large part of it became submerged under the waters of the nearby Birecik Dam on the Euphrates. Significant excavations had, apparently, only started in the late 1980s, initially partly in response to pillaging by antiquity hunters (which had, however, been ongoing since the 19th C!). These quickly uncovered a …

My hgusband and I were at this site just as the village was being inundated with the rising water of the Ataturk Damn The archaeologists were desperate to remove as much as possible to the local museum befor the water overcame the latest portion of the dig.

We were able to see beautiful mosaics and frescos in place , not in a museum.

So much was lost but people do need water. Was the damn a political act or a humanitarian act?

It was a very emotional exerience