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"Perhaps the hour-long hammam I’ve just enjoyed and the massage with pungent
laurel oil that followed have gone to my head. Looking down from the balcony of
my room I have a definite sensation of tumbling through time. Beneath me there
is a network of ancient walls, exposed hypocaust systems and toppled columns.
There is a wide stretch of marble flooring in what was once a Roman forum,
fabulous mosaic-decorated room interiors and an ancient stone-surfaced Roman
road so perfectly preserved I can imagine a cart rolling along it.
This is the view for guests at the newly opened Museum Hotel, Antakya: surely
the most remarkable hotel to launch anywhere in the world so far this year —
and one facing some remarkable challenges. It is built directly over and around
a four-acre section of downtown ancient Antioch, once the third-biggest city in
the Roman empire after Rome and Alexandria and, at its height, home to 200,000
citizens and slaves.
The hotel came about by accident. The original plan was for a standard luxury
property, but then excavations started to reveal the archaeological riches
beneath the site. While many builders might have seen this as a project-ending
nightmare, here the developers decided instead to capitalise on the discoveries
— ripping up the original plans and creating a dramatic modern building that
hovers above the mosaics, columns and ancient walls."
Via Susan ****
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
