Visiting Pella

Chuck holds the map while Prof. Diamant gives us some background of what we are going to see

The city was founded in 399 BC by King Archelaus (413–399 BC) as the capital of his kingdom, replacing the older palace-city of Aigai. After this, it was the seat of the king Philip II and of Alexander, his son. In 168 BC, it was sacked by the Romans, and its treasury transported to Rome. Later, the city was destroyed by an earthquake and eventually was rebuilt over its ruins. By 180 AD, Lucian could describe it in passing as "now insignificant, with very few inhabitants". ~wiki

However, in its time, Pella was an amazing city, built on a logical grid-style design. What the archaeologists have discovered is that the inhabitants had amazing mosaic floors in their homes. Simply beautiful. We roamed through the museum to behold the mosaics and the artifacts that were uncovered, then moved onto the site itself.

floor mosaic

Dionysus riding a panther

these were truly art pieces with great attention to detail and shading - this is not cut tile, either, but small colored pebbles

coinage found onsite

amazing gold crown - pure gold

here is one of the mosaics they have left on sight - cool, huh?