Pella Museum

Pella's small museum is superb, especially the glorious pebble mosaics found in the excavated 4th-century-B.C. homes. The two best-known mosaics show a lion hunt and the god of wine, Dionysos, riding a leopard. The lion hunt is especially tantalizing. It's a powerful depiction of a lion and two youths -- one of whom may be Alexander. Some scholars suggest that the mosaic records an incident when the young Alexander was saved by a friend from a lunging lion. Others suspect that this is merely a genre scene of a hunt. You can compare the marble bust of Alexander in the museum with the youth under attack in the lion hunt and decide for yourself. Be sure to see whether the gold and jewelry from 25 6th-century-B.C. tombs discovered here in 2005 and the remains of a vast eight-chamber Hellenistic tomb discovered in 2006 (the largest known such tomb) are on view yet. Allow at least 2 hours to visit the site and museum.

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