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In 1994, demolition works on the terrain of the former British Consulate revealed the remains of residential structures dating back to the Hellenistic period. This part of the city belonged to the Broucheion or palace quarter of ancient Alexandria, and the opulent decorations of the newly-discovered houses affirm this label. Especially impressive was a banqueting room (andron or triclinium) of some 22 m2 which still retained most of its pebble mosaic-floor: a smooth rectangular line set out the positions where couches should be placed during feasts, a stylised flower with six petals in the middle, and a smaller rectangular field with a lozenge-pattern right before the front entrance, giving the impression of a doormat. The walls, of which only the lower parts remained, still retained some of their painted stucco decorations. The houses appear to have been produced in two phases: a first phase dating to the early Third Century BCE, to which the aforementioned banqueting room also belonged; and a second phase dating to the Second Century BCE.
Unfortunately, large concrete beams had already been placed before the archaeologists got to the construction site, destroying some of the ancient remains, which are now located underneath the building of the Alexandria Faculty of Medicine.
J-Y. Empereur, Alexandria Rediscovered (London 1998) 61.