THE MUSEUM

The fifty mosaics of the museum come from a church area. They were arranged in a large rectangle that consisted of five in width and ten in length. Their exhibition at the museum walls respects the original provision: the numbered group of 1 to 5 was located - in the same order - at the top of the rectangle, that numbered from 6 to 10 was just below, and so on (panels Nos. 42 and 43 are inverted compared to the original plan of the S. Stucchi archaeologist, available at the small souvenir shop of the Site site).

Some panels refer to the historical foundation of the church and town: Sign No 3 is the representation of the city's doors, "Polis Nea Theodorias" (the new city Theodorias); Central Sign No. 23 celebrates the foundation of the church by Bishop Makarios.

Others present a bestiary of pets (bulls, horses…) or wild (leopards, eagles, bears, lions, ostriches) as well as daily life scenes (riders, musicians…). The heterogeneous character of the themes addressed in these mosaics raises a problem of interpretation, some referring to a pagan imagination, others referring clearly to Christian symbolism. Among the latter: personification by male characters of the four Old Testament Paradise rivers: Gehon (the Nile, a sistrum character, musical instrument used in the cult of Isis in Egypt, No. 7), Physon (No. 9), Euphrates (No. 17) and Tiger (No. 19). Another allegorical strand, the personification by women's figures of the three terms consecrated by the Byzantine Churches Foundation: Ktisis (meaning «foundation», No. 4), Kosmesis («ornamentation of the universe», No. 2), Ananeosis («restoration, renaissance», No. 8). The numerous fish passages (symbol of Christ), the majesty peacock (Christian soul, No. 33) and the fishermen's boat (No. 49) can also refer to the same symbolic universe.

Others are at the crossroads of the Greco-Roman and Christian worlds: Sign No 28, which was identified as a basilica facade but looks like a temple; the nymph Kastalia, nymph of the prophetic source of the oracle of Delphi on Mount Parnasse (No. 18) between the Euphrates and the Tigris (No. 17 and 19).

Finally, a whole circle of ties refers to the universe of Greco-Roman mythology: marine monsters (No. 45 and 47) and triton (No. 40), nymph Kastalia (No. 18), satire (No. 37). The scenes of the Nile (fish, waterfowl and lotus, No. 6, 10, 20, 30) refer to the influence of the school in Alexandria.

Panel No. 48 is the one that has most attracted the attention of archaeologists. It is one of the few performances of the lighthouse of Alexandria, the seventh wonder of the ancient world. Built in the th century BC, on Pharos Island, which was connected to the shoreline by a bridge, it collapsed following an earthquake, towards the th century. Its original position, at the foot of the mosaics, appears to indicate the work of artists coming from Alexandria or working from christian models.

On the ground is exposed a mosaic discovered in the same church. One of them is a fox hunting scene, a crocodile that leads to the Nile a cow by the amateur, while his owner holds it by the tail, and an inscription celebrating the laying of the mosaic by «the new Bishop Theodore», who certainly succeeded Bishop Makarios before the end of the assembly of the basilica.

Opposite the museum is the entrance of a Byzantine church which has been integrated into the structure of the Ottoman and then Italian fortress. At the time of the first excavations, it served as a refuge for a semi-nomadic tribe in the vicinity. Another mosaic is preserved there.

The church where the mosaics were discovered lies below, down the path at the end of the courtyard. You can climb on trestles that are installed there to imagine the past splendour of the large floor of the fifty mosaics, which only bright.