Location in the architectural complex:
Right transept (South)
Mosaic floor
Illustrative material:
Materials, palette:
Black. white, grey, dark-red, dark-blue,yellow
Density:
100 per dm
Composition:
A large panel of the same size and style as the north transept. A large area was destroyed and only the north part survived.
In the lower, left corner, a white stork faces a lotus flower. Ofthe large, surviving area, lower left, a large bird (perhaps crane?) and a duck sits on a lotus flower who and leans over the edge. To the right of it is a crane sipping at a lotus bud; to the right of this a tower with registers containing numbers, it is indentified as Nilometer, marked with the Greek number from bottom to top: 6 to 10; on it an unidentified (damaged) bird, perhaps a stork (Schneider. p.62). In the top range are two ducks sitting in a lotus bud, a heron attacking a little water snake that is curled up in a lotus flower. The frame consists of a garland winding towards left.
Geometric patterns:
Avi-Yonah A2
Avi-Yonah B9
Discussion:
The tower can be identified as a Nilometer by a similiar depiction on the 6th century silver dish of Perma. Later known Nilometers also support this interpretation, for example, the meter of Rhoda from 716 which has a octangonal column at its center with numbers.
(Schneider.1936,p.62)