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The Nile Festival House
The Nile itself features depictions of flora and fauna characteristic of the river in the period. Above the river is a Nilometer, next to which stands a half-naked personification of Egypt, to which corresponds the personification of the Nile River, in the opposite corner. Beneath the Nile River, the festival held in honour of the Nile in flood was depicted twice. The rest of the lower part of the pavement was devoted to various hunting scenes, this including a lion devouring an ox, a bear devouring a wild boar, and a panther attacking a gazelle. A notable feature of this pavement appears to be once more an apparent dichotomy between, on the one hand, the “idyllic”, as manifest by the celebration of the Nile Festival, and the “violent”, as represented by the hunting scene below. Others mosaics floors were found in the house, as the amazons mosaic. Others Photos
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Nile
Festival House is located east of the cardo and takes up a major part of
its insula. The House is dated to the beginning of the 5th century AD and
was in use until the end of the Byzantine period. it is the largest and
most impressive building so far exposed. All of its some 20 rooms have
beautiful, multi-colored mosaic floors. On the pavement between the cardo
and the western facade of the building, a mosaic floor was unearthed with
an eight-line inscription referring to the mosaic artists. The House has
three main wings connected by corridors. In the center of the western wing
a basilica was found - a hall containing two rows of columns and various
adjacent rooms. Additional rooms surrounding an open courtyard are found
in the house's eastern wing. The southern wing, now mostly in ruins,
included a toilet among its rooms.