After a visit I wrote “On a website of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, under “Museums” one can find information about The Şanlıurfa museum. It describes the history of the museum and what to expect if you visit. There is one drawback: ALL THE INFORMATION IS OUTDATED and has been so for at least 4 years (I write in 2019).” Things became complicated, because back home I found site with better information. Almost up to date, though they used a Google-maps map which still shows the old location as that of the new museum. Again by the ministry, so it seems. The new one consists of a large complex in brick, of a nice architecture, that houses a collection of major importance, with amongst many other items ones from Göbeklitepe. Then there is another complex, called the Haleplibahçe mosaic museum, a large circular roof that like a tent covers a huge space, with lots of mosaics from Byzantine times (most 5-6th century), a few hundreds meters further in a park. A ticket is valid for both, I found I needed two visits on consecutive days because there is so much to see. I was astounded to find that the English texts in the new Archaeological museum are concise and clear, and the ones in the mosaics museum are utter rubbish. Professional versus amateurish.

The museum feels like being in a huge tent, it covers many mosaics “in situ” and a number of ones that were brought here from other places in the province. As always I found it hard to get the colours right, and indeed from one picture to the next colour may vary. Perspective has been corrected in many cases, as one walks on “paths” on raised platforms with glass floors, almost never is one straight above a mosaic.
The ”in situ” ones are described: “During works on sewers in the Haleplibahce area, as part of a renewal project, various mosaics were discovered and the works were halted to perform emergency excavations. A villa with scenes of Amazons and one with geometric patterns were unearthed between 2006-2009. In a corridor in the Amazons villa also scenes of Achilles were found, as well as the mosaic of the Servant and zebra and that of Ktisis. Also mosaics with a lion, a tiger and waterfowl were excavated.“

I have large collections of Roman mosaics at (this one included) at: Gaziantep Zeugma Museum; Istanbul mosaics museum; Mosaics in the Casale Villa in Sicily; Adana mosaics; Antakya Museum gallery, Haleplibahçe Mosaics Museum in Urfa.