AT A GLANCE

Why go?

Set along Paphos's coastal broadwalk within the UNESCO World Heritage Archaeological Park of Kato Paphos, the Poseidonas and Amphitrite Mosaic is a Roman floor panel showing the sea god Poseidon and his queen Amphitrite on their ocean voyage. Housed in a small room of the great Villa of Theseus, it belongs to a collection the world heritage body calls among the most beautiful mosaics anywhere, an illuminated album of ancient Greek myth laid out beneath your feet.↗↗↗↗

Though the central scene has suffered damage over the centuries, the composition still reads clearly: the couple cradled together on a sea creature, Poseidon gripping his trident with a halo of divine light above his brow, Amphitrite stroking his beard, and winged Cupids bearing a banner billowing in the sea wind. For anyone drawn to how the Roman elite told their stories in stone and glass tesserae, it is a quietly memorable stop on a Paphos visit.↗↗