walking tour Nov 11th - ipogeo and mausoleum

mausoleum of lucius petus, off the via salaria

tufa walls

upper level inside, used as catacombs

ipogeo on via livenza, 9 meters down under a very lovely 20th century bldg

fabulous scene of diana and the hunt, funny since we had just seen this scene all over tunisia. She cut quite the figure, I guess

wonderful mosaic on the side wall, almost 3 dimensional effect

from this small fraction they believe it was either St Peter or maybe John the Baptist and a water scene!

upper part of fresco, fresco is from around the 3rd century a.d

saw two great sites which are normally closed to the public. the ipogeo's function is still unclear, what is clear is that it portrayed both christian and pagan symbols in the same place which was unusual and they are certain it was built just around the time of christianity being allowed i.e 313 a.d.   the  mausoleum was earlier, built when lucius was still alive. his sister's name is also on the tomb. they only found one tomb inside so he was most likely never buried there. both the upper and lower levels were used as catacombs, but it is a very small area.