Zeugma Mosaic Museum
Roman floor mosaics rescued from the Euphrates city of Zeugma, shown in reconstructed villa rooms.
The Zeugma Mosaic Museum opened in Gaziantep in September 2011 to house material recovered from the Hellenistic and Roman city of Zeugma, which stood on the Euphrates near the village of Belkıs. Founded by Seleucus I Nicator and later a Roman garrison town on the eastern frontier, Zeugma was partly submerged when the Birecik Dam reservoir filled in 2000, prompting a large international rescue excavation. The museum occupies a converted tobacco factory and is usually described as the largest mosaic museum in the world.
Floor mosaics from the villas of Zeugma are shown at the levels at which they were found, with reconstructed rooms, painted walls and a fountain restored to something close to their original arrangement. Subjects range across Greek myth, among them the wedding of Dionysus and Ariadne, river gods and the Muses, alongside the much-reproduced fragment known as the Gypsy Girl. The displays also include bronze statuary, architectural fragments, and finds from other Roman-period sites in the Gaziantep region.
Highlights
- Mosaics rescued from Zeugma before the Birecik Dam reservoir filled
- The fragment known as the Gypsy Girl, shown in a darkened room
- Reconstructed Roman villa rooms with wall paintings and a fountain
- One of the largest mosaic museums in the world, opened in 2011
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