The Cellar - April 28th, 2020 : Turkish Mosaic Surprise

In Antakya, Turkey, like everywhere else, building a hotel is a complicated undertaking. Figure the reason,
the market and a business plan. Acquire land, draw up plans, get permissions, raise big bucks, hire some
contractors, order materials, and buy a truckload of aspirin and Maalox.
Once those hurtles are cleared start construction which usually means dig the cellar/foundation.
Whoa! Full Stop!! We found an ancient tile floor. Aspirin & Maalox stat
Maybe it’s just a small floor we can move.

http://cellar.org/img/hotel1.jpg

Uh no, 11,000 square feet (1022 sq m). Six months digging and sifting by archaeologists produced not only the Roman era floor
but the foundations of a lot of buildings and more than 35,000 artifacts spanning some 2,300 years from at least 13 different
civilizations. Guess we’re not filling in this hole back in because it’s an Archaeological Treasure” which roughly translates to Antakya
can make a buck off this.

http://cellar.org/img/hotel2.jpg

Hotel builders, having gone through the whole truckload of aspirin and Maalox, said if Antakya can make a buck off this tourist
attraction why can’t we? Build a jacked up hotel over the site to protect it from weather and thieves... other thieves. All the fancy
hotels have a huge atrium with a lot of very costly wasted space with phony brooks and trees and shit to amuse the marks...
er, patrons. We can just have them dig the dig. Win win, baby. And build they did, opening 11 years later.

http://cellar.org/img/hotel4.jpg

Guest rooms are hung around the outside with windows looking down on the dig plus a first floor is an open air museum with
glass floors and walkways to get up close.

http://cellar.org/img/hotel3.jpg

They also discovered the first intact marble statue of the Greek god Eros, what could be for fitting for a hotel.

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