Gaziantep’s museum gets excellence award

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Artifacts from different periods that are on view at the museum have been unearthed at Gaziantep’s ancient sites such as Zeugma, Dülük, Sakcagözü and Zincirli. AA photo

The Zeugma Mosaic Museum in the southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep has been awarded this year’s “excellence” award in a poll conducted by Trip Advisor travel website.

The museum was visited by 125,422 people within the last three months, according to the Cultural Artifacts and Museums General Directorate.

Many artifacts from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Hittite, Hellenistic, Roman, Eastern Rome, Seljuk and Ottoman periods have been unearthed at the ancient cities of Zeugma, Dülük, Sakcagözü and Zincirli and Tilmen Tumulus in Gaziantep.

During the construction of Birecik Dam, Gaziantep Museum Directorate excavations completed in June 2000 unearthed hundreds of meters of mosaics, columns, fountains and other architectural pieces. The artifacts were taken under protection in museum depots and attracted global interest in the ancient city of Zeugma. Then in 2008, the new Zeugma Mosaic Museum put the works on display. The main museum building was finished in 2010.

The museum covers an area of 30,000 square meters and includes three different buildings, which have five seminar and conference rooms, administrative units, a library and exhibition fields.