Where you can see the world's largest mosaic, which is easy to confuse with a carpet (6 photos)

It covers the floor of a luxury hotel in Turkey.





Mosaic floors were very popular in Antiquity. Mosaic lined with villas, palaces, administrative buildings. painstaking paintings, composed of many details, depicted scenes from myths, military battles or just geometric patterns. Sometimes the plots were more mundane. For example, we said that in ancient Rome they posted on the floors are real rubbish: fruit scraps, fish bones and other food leftovers.



In Italy and Turkey, very often during excavations or even construction find fragments of these paintings. But perhaps one of the most incredible mosaics were found in 2010: it is simply huge and is 850 m².

The city of the commander who served under Alexander the Great

Mosaic found during construction of hotel in Turkish city Antakya. There is a museum in the city, where mosaic exhibits of various epochs found during excavations. Usually such fragments are cut along with the floor and transported to the museum, where they are then stored in special conditions with a certain temperature and humidity. But touch An 850-meter canvas would have been a crime, so they decided to leave it the way it is. As a result, zones for visitors were organized around the mosaic, so they can look at patterns.





Antakya was once called differently - Antioch-on-Oronte or just Antioch. This city in 300 BC. founded by Seleucus I Nicator, who was the commander of Alexander the Great. When Alexander died his vast empire was divided among his generals. Because Seleucus fought for Babylonia, these lands went to him. Antioch was a prosperous city and a large commercial center.



It was then that the mosaic began to be laid out here. Scientists it is believed that it became an ornament of some public building. However, Antioch had a difficult fate: she constantly found herself in center of conflict between empires. The city was conquered by the Sassanids, the Caliphate, Byzantines.

15 centuries of history and different nations in one mosaic

But despite the fact that power was constantly changing, the mosaic continued to create. This is another feature of it: the paintings on the floor started spreading after the founding of Antioch, and finished in the 1200s AD, when the city fell into decay. This means that 15 people worked on it centuries of masters from completely different nations.



In addition, Antioch survived two earthquakes: in 526 and 528 AD. The elements damaged the pattern, but did not destroy it, rather on the contrary, decorated. Cracks, waves, chips remained as reminders of natural disaster, and made the mosaic more beautiful and even bigger carpet-like.

Hotel Treasure

The discovery of the mosaic changed the course of construction of a luxury hotel. Its square footage has made it the largest known mosaic in the world. From hotels decided to make the Antakya Museum-Hotel, and it turned out completely unique.



Columns grew around the mosaic canvas, and her hid under the roof so that the weather would not spoil the patterns. Now there is observation deck with bridges from which visitors can admire patterns.