  In order to extend the tracking acceptance, to improve the primary and
secondary vertex reconstruction and thus enhancing the tagging capabilities for
short lived particles, the ZEUS experiment at the HERA Collider at DESY
installed a silicon strip vertex detector. The barrel part of the detector is a
63 cm long cylinder with silicon sensors arranged around an elliptical
beampipe. The forward part consists of four circular shaped disks. In total
just over 200k channels are read out using $2.9 {\rm m^2}$ of silicon. In this
report a detailed overview of the design and construction of the detector is
given and the performance of the completed system is reviewed.
