The Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep is one of the largest mosaic museums in the world, and it holds one of the best-known images in Türkiye: the Gypsy Girl, a face made of mosaic tesserae whose eyes follow you around a darkened room. The mosaics come from Zeugma, a Roman city on the Euphrates that was about to vanish beneath a dam reservoir in 2000, and which an international team excavated in a race against the rising water.
The museum opened in 2011 and, together with the baklava, it is the main reason to come to Gaziantep. Two hours is enough to see it, and it was designed so that the floors are seen as floors: from above, and in the right light.
A little history
Seleucus I founded Zeugma around 300 BC at a crossing point on the Euphrates. Under Rome it was a garrison and trading town, with a legion stationed there and wealthy villas decorated with mosaic floors and frescoes. The Sasanians sacked it in AD 253 and it never fully recovered; silt from the river buried the city and, in doing so, protected it.
When the Birecik Dam threatened to flood the site, dozens of mosaics and frescoes were rescued in 1999 and 2000 in an emergency operation with international funding. Much of the lower town now lies under the reservoir. The mosaics came to Gaziantep, first to the old archaeological museum and, since 2011, to this building, which was built for them.
What to see at the Zeugma Mosaic Museum
The Gypsy Girl
In a room of her own, in half-darkness, is a mosaic fragment showing the face of a woman with large eyes, loose hair and earrings. She is called the Gypsy Girl because of her headscarf and her expression, although she is probably a maenad or the goddess Gaia. Twelve fragments smuggled out of the country in the 1960s came back from the United States in 2018 and are now displayed together with her.
The villa floors
The mosaics are laid out as they were found: complete floors from dining rooms and courtyards, with Dionysus and Ariadne, Eros and Psyche, Poseidon, Perseus and Andromeda, Achilles on Skyros, the river Euphrates in human form and banquet scenes, with the wall frescoes reconstructed around them. You look at them from walkways and from balconies on the upper floor. Each room shows the plan of the villa the floor came from, so you can tell whether it was a dining room or a courtyard.
The statue of Mars
An almost complete bronze statue of Mars, found in one of the villas, takes pride of place in the main hall. Fountains, columns and pottery complete the displays around the mosaics.
How the mosaics were made
One section explains how the mosaics were made, with tesserae of stone and glass, and how they were lifted, moved and restored. If you are travelling with children, this is the part that works best.
Tips for your visit
Allow two hours. It is a modern, air-conditioned museum with ramps and lifts.
- You can take photos without flash. For the Gypsy Girl, be patient: there is always someone standing in front of her.
- Combine it with the castle, the Coppersmiths' Bazaar and a baklava shop: the old town is ten minutes away.
- If you want more, Zeugma itself, with its villas under a protective roof above the reservoir, is about an hour's drive away.
Tickets and prices
At the time of writing (2026), entry costs €13 under the official 2027 rates. On my tours the ticket is either included or your guide takes care of it.
Where it is and how to get there
The museum is in Gaziantep itself, a short walk from the railway station and ten minutes by taxi from the castle. Gaziantep airport has flights from Istanbul and Ankara, and Adana is about two and a half hours away by motorway; there are also trains from Adana, although they take longer.
Visiting the museum on my tours
It is the centrepiece of the Gaziantep day on my Archaeological Anatolia tour, followed in the afternoon by the castle, the bazaar and the baklava trail, which I describe in Gaziantep: the Zeugma mosaics and the baklava capital of Türkiye. To find out what to eat in the country's great food city, read the Turkish dishes you have to try.
If the south-east is calling you, tell me about it and plan your tailor-made trip: I'll put together a route with Gaziantep in it.