The significance of Zeugma is the Roman villas and their floor mosaics. Zeugma had captured the public attention, when the Birecik Dam Project brought up the possibility that Zeugma could have been inundated under the dam's waters. Majority of the Roman villas were brought to day light within the framework of a rescue excavation which was intensified in 2000. Yet, the total of the excavations, which were originally started in 1987, have discovered only a small number of these unique mosaics.
Today in the Zeugma Mosaics Museum 500 meter square-wide mosaics, 35 mosaic panels as well as the famous 1, 50 cm-long bronze Mars and Aphrodite statutes are in display. The museum is proudly the second biggest mosaic museum of the world.

In the eyes of its devotees, BODRUM – ancient Halicarnassos – with its whitewashed houses and subtropical gardens, is the most attractive Turkish resort, a quality outfit in comparison to its upstart Aegean rivals. And it is a pleasant town in most senses, despite having no real beach, although development has proceeded apace over the last couple of decades. The centrepiece is the Castle of St Peter (Tues–Sun 9am–noon & 1–5pm; $7), built by the Knights of St John over a Selçuk fortress between 1437 and 1522. Inside, the various towers house a Museum of Underwater Archeology, which includes coin and jewellery rooms, classical and Hellenistic statuary, and Byzantine relics retrieved from two wrecks, alongside a diorama explaining salvage techniques. The Carian princess hall ($2.50 extra) displays the skeleton and sarcophagus of a fourth-century BC noblewoman unearthed in 1989. There is also the Glass Wreck Hall ($2.50 extra) containing the wreck and cargo of an ancient Byzantine ship, which sank near Marmaris. Immediately north of the castle lies the bazaar, from where you can stroll up Türkkuyusu Caddesi and turn left to the town's other main sight, the Mausoleum (daily 8am–5pm; $2). This is the burial place of Mausolus, who ruled Halicarnassos in the fourth century BC, greatly increasing its power and wealth. His tomb (from which we derive the word "mausoleum") was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but the bulk of it is now in London's British Museum. The town's ancient amphitheatre, just above the main highway to the north, was begun by Mausolus and was modified in the Roman era; it's used during the annual September festival.