Zeugma has become one of the most frequently heard words over recent months, not just in the Turkish but in the world press. Founded by the Macedonian Seleucid ruler Nicator I, this Hellenistic city grew in prosperity during Roman times since it lay on the trade road which stretched eastwards across Asia to China. Zeugma’s huge wealth was reflected in the homes of its inhabitants. Rich merchants and Roman noblemen and officers vied with one another to adorn their houses with the world’s loveliest mosaics, ceramics, statues, and frescos. Zeugma has been described in international literature as the ‘second Pompei’. The people of Zeugma enjoyed a magnificent lifestyle in their city on the Euphrates until the Sassanid invasion in 252 AD, when the city was burnt and razed. This was followed shortly afterwards by a violent earthquake, and a city which had extended over an area of 2100 hectares was buried beneath rubble, and fell into a sleep from which it was not to wake for nearly two thousand years. After the Turks took the region, the city became known as the Belkýs Ruins.