Stock Photo - Pictures of the famous Nilotic landscape Palestrina Mosaic or Nile mosaic of Palestrina of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Palestrina Prenestino (Palestrina Archaeological Museum), Palestrina, Italy. Measuring 5. 85 m wide by 4. 31 m high ( 19 ft wide x 14 ft high). 1st or 2nd century BC. Against a black background. . . The Nile mosaic of Palestrina can be attributed to Alexandrian artists who were certainly present in Italy during the 2nd century BC. The mosaic depicts the Nile in flood and artificially compresses the length of the river into a series of zig zags. The top part of the mosaic represents Ethiopia and Nubia at the source of the Nile. The river flows down steep slopes between black hunters and African animals. The Nile flows to the bottom right hand corner of the mosaic where the harbour of Alexandria is depicted and right in the bottom right corner is the Island of the Pharos opposite which is a banqueting scene, possibly at Canopus. . . In the centre of the mosaic is a large Egyptian temple possibly the great sanctuary of Memphis or Karnak. The Mosaic though is dotted with Greek temples of the Greek ruling Ptolemy family who displaced the Pharos.