Great Palace Mosaics Museum

The mosaics on show here came to light in excavations begun in 1935 in the north-eastern part of the porticoed courtyard of the Eastern Roman Great Palace. They are dated to roughly AD 450 to 550, and what sets them apart is their subject matter: nothing religious, only daily life, nature and mythology, shown with a liveliness that suggests a team of skilled artists working under leading masters.

The museum sits in the Arasta Bazaar, part of the Blue Mosque complex in Sultanahmet, and it was built deliberately around what remained of the mosaic pavement. Only about 180 square metres of the original floor survive. The museum was attached to the Istanbul Archaeological Museums in 1953 and to the Hagia Sophia Museum directorate from 1979.

The floor is made of limestone, terracotta and coloured stones, with tiny tesserae of about five millimetres. The scenes include a griffin eating a lizard, an elephant fighting a lion, a mare nursing her foal, children herding geese, a man milking a goat, a boy feeding his donkey and a young girl carrying a jug. Look closely at the faces and animals, because the small size of the stones gives them remarkable detail.