What to See in Gaziantep - Top Sights and Attractions

Large museum showcasing ancient mosaics. Zeugma Mosaic Museum, in the town of Gaziantep, Turkey, is the biggest mosaic museum in the world, containing 1700 m2 of mosaics. It opened to the public on 9 September 2011. The 30,000 m2 museum features 2,448 m2 of mosaic and replaces the Bardo National Museum in Tunis as the world’s largest mosaic museum.

The museum's Hellenistic Greek and Roman mosaics are focused on Zeugma, which is said to have been founded as Seleucia by Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid Kingdom after serving as a hetairoi military officer in the army of Alexander the Great. The treasures, including the mosaics, remained relatively unknown until 2000 when artifacts appeared in museums and when plans for new dams on the Euphrates meant that much of Zeugma would be flooded. In 2011, many of the mosaics remain covered, and teams of researchers continue to work on the project.^[2]

Fortress in Gaziantep, Turkey. Gaziantep Castle is a castle first built by the Hittite Empire as an observation point and later built into a main castle by the Roman Empire on top of a hill at the center of Gaziantep, Turkey, in 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. It underwent further expansion and renovation under Emperor Justinianus between 527 and 565 AD. The circumference of the round shaped castle is 1200 meters. The walls are built of stone and the castle consists of 12 towers.

The castle has been renovated numerous times and took its final shape in 2000. Today, the castle is used as the Gaziantep Defence and Heroism Panoramic Museum, and a documentary regarding the defence of the city against the liberating French forces after the fall of the Ottoman Empire runs periodically.^[3]

Mosque in Gaziantep, Turkey. Liberation Mosque, formerly the St Mary's Church Cathedral or Holy Mother of God Church, is located in the Tepebaşı district of Gaziantep in Turkey. It was built as an Armenian church, but, after the Armenian genocide, it was converted into a storage building and later, it was converted into a jail. Sarkis Balyan, the Ottoman-Armenian architect of Sultan Abdulhamid II, designed the church. Construction started in 1892, undertaken by the stonemason Sarkis Taşçıyan. The church was part of a complex which also contained a school and the administrative buildings of the dioceses of the kaza of Antep.

In 1915, almost all of the Armenians of Gaziantep were deported to Syrian desert during the genocide. The church stood empty until the 1920s, when it was used as a prison. It remained a prison into the 1970s until it was converted into a mosque in 1986. The top half of the bell tower was demolished, the remainder converted into a single-balcony minaret. The bell, which was cast in the 19th century in South America, was taken to Gaziantep Museum.^[4]

Museum in Gaziantep, Turkey. The Gaziantep Museum of Archaeology is an archaeological museum located in the city of Gaziantep, Turkey. It housed for some years a collection of mosaics, most of which were excavated from the ancient Roman city site of Zeugma. A new museum, the Zeugma Mosaic Museum now houses those. After an overhaul of the displays the museum now houses a fine collection of finds from the region. Exhibits include a collection of paleolithic artifacts; items from a Bronze Age necropolis; Hittite, Persian, Roman, Hellenistic, and Commagene artworks and glassware; Ottoman and Islamic coins and medallions; and the skeleton of a mammoth. Attached to the museum is a garden containing a selection of stone artifacts, including pagan tombstones from Zeugma, Christian tombstones, and Hittite statuary.

The museum in its current form dates from 2005, when it was substantially enlarged to house the newly discovered Zeugma mosaics.^[6]

University in Gaziantep, Turkey. Gaziantep University is a public university in Gaziantep, Turkey. Gaziantep University has 10 faculties, containing a total of 22 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological research.

Gaziantep is the largest trade and industrial center in the west of Southeastern Turkey. Gaziantep University was founded as a state university on 27 June 1987, but higher education on campus began in 1973 when the institute was an extension campus of the Middle East Technical University. The main campus is located at Gaziantep, which is close to the city centre, with its extension campuses situated in the neighbouring cities.

The objectives of the university are:

• Cultural, scientific, technical, medical and vocational education and training,
• Fundamental and applied research,
• Technical, scientific and cultural exchanges with similar institutions at national and international levels,

The University of Gaziantep enrolled 24,406 undergraduates, 482 postgraduate students, and employed 1,048 faculty members in the 2008/09 school year. The language of instruction at the Gaziantep University is English.

Gaziantep University ranks the thousandth in Times Higher Education World University Rankings from 2020-2021.^[8]