Pella was located by chance finds in 1957; preliminary excavations have revealed a vast site covering over 485 hectares. As yet, only a few blocks of the city have been fully excavated but they have proved exciting, and investigations are continuing. The acropolis at Pella is a low hill to the west of the modern village of Pélla. Excavation is in progress on a sizeable building, probably a palace, but at present it's illuminating mainly for the idea it gives you of the size and scope of the site. To the north of the road, at the main site, stand the low remains of a grand official building, probably a government office; it is divided into three large open courts, each enclosed by a peristyle , or portico (the columns of the central one have been re-erected), and bordered by wide streets with a sophisticated drainage system.

The three main rooms of the first court have patterned geometric floors, in the centre of which were found intricate pebble mosaics depicting scenes of a lion hunt, a griffin attacking a deer and Dionysos riding a panther. These are now in the excellent museum across the road (April-Oct Mon noon-7pm, Tues-Sun 8am-7pm; Nov-March 8am-3pm, closed Mon; same price as site), next to the car park. But in the third court three late fourth-century BC mosaics have been left in situ under sheltering canopies; one, a stag hunt, is complete, and astounding in its dynamism and use of perspective. The others represent, respectively, the rape of Helen by Paris and his friends Phorbas and Theseus, and a fight between a Greek and an Amazon.

It is the graceful and fluid quality of these compositions that sets them apart from later Roman and Byzantine mosaics, and which more than justifies a visit. The uncut pebbles, carefully chosen for their soft shades, blend so naturally that the shapes and movements of the subjects seem gradated rather than fixed, especially in the action of the hunting scenes and the rippling movement of the leopard with Dionysos. Strips of lead or clay are used to outline special features; the eyes, now missing, were probably semi-precious stones.

The mosaics are inevitably a hard act to follow, but the museum merits another half-hour of perusal for the sake of its other well-presented exhibits. Highlights include rich grave finds from the two local necropolises, delicately worked terracotta figurines from a sanctuary of Aphrodite and Cybele, a large horde of late Classical/early Hellenistic coins, and - on the rarely seen domestic level - metal door fittings: pivots, knocker plates and crude keys