Rare Egyptian mosaic goes on display in Israel

(The Christian Science Monitor) A multicolored mosaic showing an ancient Egyptian settlement went on display recently in an unlikely location: a parking lot in Israel.

The mosaic—made of some 17 tile colors—shows a complex map of streets and buildings in ancient Egypt, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority said. A Greek inscription suggests that the map depicts the settlement of Chortaso, Egypt, where the prophet Habakkuk was once buried, the website LiveScience reported.

Dating back some 1,500 years to the Byzantine period, the mosaic once sat on a church floor, the archaeologists said in a statement.