Sinking Treasures

By Andrew Finkel/Istanbul

Controlling a strategic juncture where the Silk Route crossed the Euphrates River, the city of Zeugma was one of the Roman Empire's easternmost outposts--until it was torched by Persian invaders in A.D. 252. But like the eruption that buried Pompeii two centuries earlier, the fire preserved a trove of mosaics, statuary and villas. Now Zeugma faces destruction again, this time from rising floodwaters of a hydroelectric project. "It is a wall-to-wall carpet of mosaics, richer and more important than Pompeii," laments archaeologist Mehmet Onal. For a brief moment last week, Turkish officials hinted that the ruins might get a temporary reprieve, but those hopes vanished when the contractor announced that each month's delay would add $30 million to the $1 billion project. For disappointed archaeologists the only recourse is to scramble to rescue as many of the objects as possible before they disappear below the water at the end of the month.

--By Andrew Finkel/Istanbul