In 2019 I went to Antakya to visit the Archaeological Museum that, I knew, had moved. However, finding the address was hell, maps were outdated, the ministry’s site led me to the old location. Googling I suddenly hit articles about a Museum Hotel Antakya. It might be “just the name of the shop” (phrase from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, a favourite of mine). But reading some articles I understood this might be a treat: the world’s largest classical mosaic under a modern hotel. I decided to pay it a visit. At the reception I was treated very kindly. The hotel formally consists of a hotel-part, with a museum-part below, that itself was run by the ministry of culture and tourism. That part had not opened yet, but I was allowed to walk most parts that were open to hotel guests. I was astounded: hundreds of square meters of mosaics, surrounded by what seemed to have been public spaces and some buildings, and as piece de resistance a wonderful and huge mosaic. A big central frame with Pegasus, the winged horse, surrounded by water nymphs. Then a smaller but still large frame with muses, some smaller frames with smaller groups, and lots of smallish frames with all kinds of animals, or fishing putti.
Surrounding this there were tens of square meters with fine geometric patterns, that were made more complicated as earthquakes had corrugated them, without causing much damage.
For a change I did not correct colours (well, I did increase contrast in some). I tested what they would look like after a “autocolours” edit and they looked too cool, I show only a few of those to indicate what I mean. The main mosaic I first took pictures of through a glass floor, later I found I could take pictures from another spot without glass. I went a bit berserk, and took very many pictures, almost all have been perspective-corrected.