We stopped at a simit shop to pick up some breakfast. Simit is a crisp bread ring, the size of a quoit, smothered with sesame seeds. We also tried some cheese pastries and dough items.
We found the Ethnographic Museum easily, although it is not in a prominent spot. The street it is in is narrow, most of the street surface is bad repair, there is scaffolding on some buildings and all the doors facing the street were closed – even that of the museum. We opened that door and entered into another world. An old Armenian house has been set up as life would have been once. Rooms open off a central courtyard, with a balcony across one end, accessible by inside and outside stairs. I make the assumption that the house was Armenian because Mehmet told us that old Ottoman houses always have a water feature of some sort.
Mannequins posed in fully furnished rooms bearing the names of Kitchen, Bathroom, Sitting Room, Bride Room, Mother-in-Law Room, Sister-in-Law Room, Pigeon Loft Room, and Work Room. They depicted the life of a wealthy family, with the Bride Room having a photo of the real 1960s bride in the dress that the mannequin was now wearing. Upstairs the Defence Room and the Room of Martyrs told the story of the Defence of Gaziantep, with the solemn faces of the martyrs gazing out from their photos, unaware of their fate. 
The cellar was dug into the rock below one wing of the house and extended down for three levels. Chutes connected it with rooms and the courtyard above. What an asset! No wonder the rooms could all be neat and tidy with all this storage space at a cool and regular temperature. A museum such as this certainly helps us to understand (or in our case, also to speculate on and ask questions about) customs and culture. 
The Archaeological Museum was not far away, but since we arrived in time for the lunch break closure, we had some food and relaxed in its garden. Roses grow extremely well here, with beautiful bushes blooming everywhere. The museum gardeners had also planted rose cuttings in their watered red soil, with nearly 100% success rate. Hittite and Roman statues and stellae were punctuated with glorious blooms.This museum features mosaics taken from the homes of wealthy Roman citizens of Zeugma, an ancient town which was excavated before the waters of the Atatürk Dam inundated some of it. Beautifully displayed, the mosaics feature geometric designs and mythological themes. They are to a great degree complete, but even as they were being discovered and guarded, robbers stole large segments.
One display showed the photo taken of the newly unearthed complete mosaic of a complex wedding scene, and on the wall a small segment was all that had been left. Since Zeugma was on the Euphrates River, and in fact its name means bridge or passage, it was important commercially and militarily, and its inhabitants had special respect the gods Euphrateus and Oceanus. Detailed water creatures and fish abound in the mosaics. A film with English subtitles was helpful in explaining the history and conservation projects.Other rooms featured the 100,000 seals (used for sealing written communications) found at Zeugma, dating back long before the Romans. Many were tiny, yet intricately detailed.
A burial chamber had been set up with statues in the outer chamber and graves, one with a body in it, in the inner one. I was amused to watch the fascination of a boy of about ten years, visiting and revisiting the inner chamber again and again, each time rearranging the bones of the skeleton. I know he will always remember it.While we were examining the ‘piece de resistance’ – the beautiful mosaic called the Gipsy Girl, a small group of teenage students entered. We were far more interesting than the museum exhibits so they crowded around us, only to be embarrassed by their staring and unable to summon up their English phrases now that they had a real situation. We understand that feeling, being a lot more fluent in practising phrases on the bus than in recalling them on the streets. We all said "Hello," and then, in Turkish, we told them our names. They told us theirs in English. The conversation stalled until one girl offered "Please take off your shoes." Much laughter and we were back to examining the Gyspy Girl.
She is exceptional to me in the world of mosaics because she has individuality and a look of intelligence and interest in her eyes. Most other female mosaic subjects are divine, or are being taken advantage of by divine males, and look fairly dopey and stereotypical. 
Unfortunately the Gypsy girl is not complete with the lower part of her face having been stolen, along with the rest of the panel she was part of.A walk to the Castle revived us, since we were suffering from museum fatigue a little. The castle was used in 1921 and had a role in the independence struggles. Inside, the Gaziantep Museum has started massive excavation work, all of which is unlabeled and some of which is protected by a roof. We did not see the remains of the mosque but we could see the footings of many buildings and could walk the walls, looking out on modern Gaziantep.
More excavations line the moat and a large area opposite the castle. A bath house complex has been restored. As far as the eye could see, on all sides, the tangle of houses and roads that make up a large city, spread before us. An older area, close to the castle, provided a crazy paving pattern of terracotta roof tops, while concrete high rises had infiltrated everywhere else like an invading army. We took many photos.Accustomed now to seeing a particular café in the park as a second home and relaxation centre, we headed that way. Some school boys practised their English and guided us to the end we wanted, where we could visit the Tourist Office and check out buses for the next day. At the café, a young man called Erkan, joined us, another young person with a friendly nature and a keen interest in practising English and meeting new people. He was still with us when Mehmet arrived, so we all chatted for a while.
Mehmet had brought his laptop computer. We looked at photos of the parts of Turkey he had visited and didn’t notice time passing or the descending evening chilling our bones. When we stood up to leave, we were all freezing. The warmth of the pastries and tea in a simit shop restored us, before we headed off to a side street where a restaurant was set up in an old Armenian house. It was similar in layout to the Ethnographic Museum, with the rooms being lined with built in cupboards, which were simply but elegantly designed to look like lining panels. The ceiling had a wooden box pleated design. We looked at a fascinating collection of views of old Gaziantep on Mehmet’s laptop, so different to the shots we had taken from the castle, and yet with some scenes that were familiar to us. Eventually we were asked to leave, since it was closing time, but not before Mehmet had offered us some excellent computer programs for language and travel plans.
Walking back through the now deserted streets, with only two pairs of following feet knocking out a hollow motif on the paving stones, we felt so warm towards Mehmet and Gaziantep, and sad that we were to leave the next day. 
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