The grandest Roman house excavated at Utica, dating from the first or second century AD. The plan is unusual for a North African town house — a long peristyle courtyard at the centre, mosaic-floored rooms on three sides, and a small private bath suite tucked into one corner. The owner was clearly a man of means.
What survives is mostly floor — but the floors are the point. The polychrome mosaics show fish, marine creatures, and geometric patterns in colours still surprisingly fresh after almost two millennia. A wooden walkway lets you cross some of the more delicate panels without standing on them. Come early or late in the day; the low sun brings out the texture in the tesserae.