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Narlıkuyu Mosaic Museum is a small museum in
Narlıkuyu Mosaic Museum is a small museum in Narlıkuyu
Narlıkuyu (; in Turkish) is a small coastal town in Mersin Province, Turkey.
History
A small 4th century building, once part of a bath and baptism complex financed by Poimenios of Corycus, survives to the present in the area (''see'' Narl ...
, Turkey that encompasses a Roman bath with a mosaic tile floor. The mosaic depicts the Three Graces.
Location
Narlıkuyu is a town in Silifke ilçe (district) of Mersin Province. Narlıkuyu is from Silifke and fromMersin
Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...
. It is situated in a small Mediterranean bay which is fed by freshwater. The museum is actually a closed area of mosaic and it is situated just at the back of the restaurants at .
History
During the Roman Empire, Narlıkuyu was called ''Porto Calamie''. In the 4th century A.D., Poimenios, the Roman governor of nearbyCorycus
Corycus ( el, Κώρυκος; also transliterated Corycos or Korykos; hy, Կոռիկոս, translit=Koṙikos; tr, Kız Kalesi, lit. "maiden castle") was an ancient city in Cilicia Trachaea, Anatolia, located at the mouth of the valley called ...
, (modern Kızkalesi) commissioned a bath and baptism complex in Porto Calamie. The source of the bath water was an underground stream from the sinkhole Cennet
In Islam, Jannah ( ar, جَنّة, janna, pl. ''jannāt'',lit. "paradise, garden", is the final abode of the righteous. According to one count, the word appears 147 times in the Quran. Belief in the afterlife is one of the six articles of f ...
, which is in the Taurus Mountains, northwest of Porto Calamie. The bath survives and, in 1976, a building was constructed to house the bath. The building is now under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture as a free-of-charge museum.
The mosaic
An inscription at the entrance of the bath reads: The emperors mentioned were probably Arcadius (378-408) and Honorius (384-423). The holy islands are the Princes' Islands of Marmara. The bath floor is a mosaic. The mosaic depicts three Graces, Aglaea, Euphrosyne and Thalia, and a couple of partridges and doves. The local name of the mosaic is ''Üç Güzeller'' ( en, Three beauties) The mosaic refers to the mythological story of the baptism of Aphrodite.Mersin Ören yerleri,Kaleleri, Müzeleri p.199References