The Villa of the Birds

The Villa of the Birds is one of three villas located in the site of Kom al-Dikka in Alexandria, which sit in an archaeological park covering nearly 40,000 square meters and sloping well below present-day street level. The park’s residential district along the eastern elevation, date to the early Roman period, the first through third centuries. The villa retained its mosaic floors and original floorplans over the centuries. In 1998, the American Research Center in Egypt – in collaboration with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Polish-Egyptian Preservation Mission, the Polish Center of Archaeology and Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities – began work to conserve the mosaics in the Villa of the Birds, named for the images of bird species in one of its more prominent mosaics. The mosaic’s artistic depiction of birds is a unique feature and one of the few figural mosaics from Alexandria’s Roman period to survive to the present day.

Find out more about the Excavation and Preservation of Kom al-Dikka Mosaics project here.