The sheltered villa quarter
Boardwalks over the House of Dionysos and the House of Danae, where mosaic floors and painted walls remain in place.
Anadolu — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0
A third of this city now lies under the Birecik Dam reservoir. In the autumn of 2000 the Euphrates rose and swallowed Zeugma's lower quarter, at the end of a frantic months-long race to lift the mosaics out of its villa floors before the water arrived. What was saved became the star of the Zeugma Mosaic Museum back in Gaziantep. What stayed behind is the city itself: a slope above an artificial lake, and the foundations of houses whose wealthy owners once looked down from their terraces on one of the most important crossings of the river. The name explains why. Zeugma is Greek for the link, the bridge of boats that spanned the Euphrates at exactly this point. Seleucus I founded it as Seleucia around 300 BC; after 64 BC the Romans turned it into a garrison and customs post on their eastern frontier, home to the Fourth Scythian Legion. Caravan trade made it rich enough for a population of up to 70,000, until the Sasanians burned it around 253 AD and it never fully recovered. What you see on the ground today is modest next to the museum, and that should be said plainly. The part worth the stop is the villa quarter under a modern canopy that shields it from sun and rain: you walk on timber boardwalks over the House of Dionysos and the House of Danae, with mosaic floors still where they were laid and walls that keep the colours of their Roman paintings. Around it are a Roman bath, a grid of streets and an agora, with little shade and nothing to count on in the way of a café, so bring water and come in the morning if you visit in summer; August on this bank of the Euphrates is merciless. You need a car. It is about 45 km east of Gaziantep on the motorway to Nizip, then ten minutes east to Belkıs on the riverbank, roughly an hour in all. There is no useful public transport; a taxi works if you agree a wait-and-return fare. The smart plan is to make it one stop in a full day: Zeugma first thing, the pistachio orchards around Nizip, then the boat from Halfeti to Rumkale on the same reservoir that drowned the city.
Boardwalks over the House of Dionysos and the House of Danae, where mosaic floors and painted walls remain in place.
From the top of the slope you look down on the water of the Birecik Dam covering the boat bridge and a third of the city.
Remains of a bath, a street grid and a marketplace that give the scale of a city of up to 70,000.
Belkıs, Nizip, Gaziantep
If time is short, the museum is enough; every famous mosaic is there, and the site itself needs no more than an hour. Come to Zeugma only if you are heading out towards Nizip or Halfeti anyway, when it becomes a natural stop on a fine day along the river.
The boardwalks under the canopy are easy, but the rest is a dusty slope with steps and no shade, so a pushchair is useless beyond the canopy. With small children in summer, keep it to a short morning visit and move on to the boat at Halfeti.