Guide
The Narlıkuyu Mosaic Museum is a small museum in the Narlıkuyu quarter of the Silifke district of Mersin, built over the floor mosaic of a Roman bath.
The place was once Porto Calamie, the sea gate used through antiquity and the Middle Ages by pilgrims coming to worship at the Corycian Cave. A spring of fresh water rises in that cave and runs into the sea in the small bay at Porto Calamie, reaching a temperature of 28°C, and a Roman bath was built here to use it. It was built in the fourth century by Poimenios, the Byzantine governor of the Holy Islands, in the hope that it would bring healing to the people of the district; of that bath the floor mosaic and a water basin survive.
The mosaic is worked in black, white and yellow stone and shows the daughters of Zeus known as the Three Graces — Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia — among geometric shapes and motifs of birds and flowers. The Greek inscription above it says that if a friend should ask who found the hidden source of the water of this fine bath, let him know it was Poimenios, who governed the Holy Islands honestly and was a friend of emperors.
The remains of the bath were disappearing over time. Work to protect them began in 1975, and the museum building of 65.28 square metres raised over the mosaic opened in 1976. Entry is free.
When to go
The museum is open to visitors between 8.30 and 19.00 in the summer season and between 8.00 and 17.00 in winter.
