Zeugma Mosaic Museum eyes 600,000 visitors this year

GAZIANTEP

Zeugma Mosaic Museum, one of the largest mosaic museums in the world that exhibits many important works, notably the "Gypsy Girl" mosaic, aims to host 600,000 visitors in 2024.

Spread over 30,000 square meters, the museum opened its doors on Sept. 9, 2011. It is among the most visited places by local and foreign tourists coming to Gaziantep in southeastern Türkiye.

The museum, which received the Presidential Culture and Art Grand Prize, exhibits "Gypsy Girl," "Mars statue," Roman-era fountains and mosaics found in villas by the Euphrates River.

Zeugma Museum Director Özgür Çomak stated that visitors show special interest in mosaics based on Roman and Greek mythology that are made in three dimensions with 13 different color scales.

While the museum reached 440,000 visitors in 2022, it hosted 220,000 people last year due to the deadly Feb. 6 earthquakes.

"Before the Feb. 6 earthquakes, the number of visitors had reached 27,000. According to the estimates, had the earthquake not happened, the number of tourist arrivals would have reached 700,000. Around 220,000 people visited our museum in 2023. Our museum was closed for 74 days due to the earthquakes," Çomak stated.

Noting that there is an increasing interest in the museum day by day, Çomak said, "We reopened our museum on the eve of the Ramadan Feast. After July, the visitor density started to increase. We reached our peak in the fall. We think we will reach a 600,000 figure in 2024 as long as there is nothing extraordinary."

The museum provides audio guides for visitors in 10 different languages.

Along with the Zeugma Mosaic Museum, nine quake-hit museums and ruins were reopened in April last year. After the inspections made by the Directorate of Surveying and Monuments in the region, the Şanlıurfa Göbeklitepe Ruins opened on April 3, Malatya Arslantepe Ruins opened on April 10, Adana Museum opened on April 15, Diyarbakır and Mardin Museum, Kayseri Museum, Güpgüpoğlu Ethnography Museum, Kayseri Atatürk House Museum and Kültepe Ruins opened on April 17 last year.