Ambulacro della Grande Caccia

Central Sicily


This 64m-long corridor is emblazoned with dramatic hunting scenes of tigers, leopards, elephants, antelopes, ostriches and a rhino – animals that the Romans eventually hunted to extinction in North Africa. The first figure is resplendent in a Byzantine cape and is flanked by two soldiers, most likely Maximianus himself and two members of his personal guard.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Central Sicily attractions

1. Peristyle

0.01 MILES

The main part of the villa is centred on the peristyle, a vast covered courtyard lined with amusing animal heads. This is where guests would have been…

2. Basilica

0.01 MILES

After they had been received in the peristyle, guests were led through to the basilica, a building used for public assembly.

3. Sala delle Dieci Ragazze

0.01 MILES

Just off the southern end of the Ambulacro della Grande Caccia, in the Sala delle Dieci Ragazze, is the villa's most famous mosaic. It depicts nine …

4. Little Hunt

0.02 MILES

Of the rooms on the northern side of the peristyle, the most interesting is a dining room featuring a hunting mosaic called the Little Hunt – 'little'…

5. Villa Romana del Casale

0.02 MILES

Villa Romana del Casale is sumptuous, even by decadent Roman standards, and is thought to have been the country retreat of Marcus Aurelius Maximianus,…

6. Triclinium

0.03 MILES

One of a series of apartments on one side of the Ambulacro, the triclinium boasts a splendid floor illustration of the labours of Hercules, where the…

7. Xystus

0.03 MILES

An elliptical courtyard.

8. Palaestra

0.03 MILES

The palaestra wows with a splendid, sweeping mosaic depicting a chariot race at the Circus Maximus in Rome (the room is also known as the Salone del Circo…