Bits of tile arranged together to create an image is called a mosaic. This ancient art form was used to beautify even the floor beneath people’s feet! Want to visit this set of mosaics in person? It’s been displayed around the world. But now you’ll have to take a trip to Israel to see it.

The set of Roman mosaics probably adorned a rich person’s house in the third or fourth century. It was discovered in the city of Lod in 1996. The city, also called Lydda, is in central Israel. (In Acts 9:32-35, Peter healed a man there.) Around A.D. 200, it became a Roman colony called Diospolis.

This floor is one of the largest mosaics found in Israel. And it’s in good shape. The collection of images stretches 56 feet by 30 feet. (That’s about the size of half a tennis court.) The pictures feature sailing ships and a whole zoo of animals. Some of the creatures are ordinary, like fish and birds. Others are beasts that would have been exotic to the residents of Lod. Those include an African elephant, a rhinoceros, and a giraffe!

For more than a decade, Israeli authorities raised money for a museum. The mosaics had no permanent home. They went to museums around the globe.

The mosaics’ new home is at the Shelby White and Leon Levy Mosaic Lod Archaeological Center. The museum is designed to recreate an ancient Roman villa. That’s a house like the one that first held the mosaics.

“Our dream for this city—itself a mosaic of cultures—is being realized today,” said Mayor Yair Revivo when the museum opened. He hopes it will put Lod on the world tourism map.

Why? People have developed techniques to uncover and preserve artifacts like these mosaics. Those artifacts help us understand more about the past.