Update: Turkey Floods Ancient Ruins

Despite international pleas to delay the project further, the Turkish government allowed rising waters from a newly constructed dam to begin flooding an area known to be rich in Roman artifacts and mosaics.

As reported earlied by Fragments of Time (see Turkish Government Oks Flooding of Country's "Pompeii"), the Birecik Dam project had been given a short reprieve but that dealine expired and the Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit gave the final go-ahead. The lower part of the ancient Roman city of Zeugma, called by some as the "Pompeii of Turkey," has forever taken its secrets, treasures and artifacts into a waterfilled grave where it will be inaccessible to future generations.