Antiquities

Pics from the past. Just a few of the many ancient sites in our immediate area.

Stone bridge still standing from 4,000 years ago. This is my favourite ruin. There are several bridges in the area and remnants of an ancient road, once used by travellers and chariots 'they' say.  I enjoy taking any visitors to stand on this bridge. Traditional person is no longer amused. He's 'been there, done that' too often.

Ancient temple at Nemea.  In wine country an hour or so from us.  Also the site of a small friendly and very traditional taverna along an old river bed.

Traditional Greek persons tolerate the ruins because of their proximity to the traditional taverna.

Epidavros theatre

Now open again as are all ancient sites

No doubt getting ready for the summer festival of ancient Greek drama. 

My very own traditional person complained last time he visited the theatre and told the guards he had brought so many people to view the site that he should not have to pay. They let him in free.

My daughter, seated on an ancient stone from the Greek pyramid behind her. Also an ancient site on the 'ok' list because of the excellent grilled lamb chops at a taverna close by.

The pyramid is possibly  from 2,500 BC.

The temple to Aphaia on the next door island of Aegina

Impressive ruins. Aphaia was a goddess associated with fertility and agriculture. She was worshipped almost exclusively on this island.

Stones from one of  three vaulted tombs from around 1,600BC.  Located on the mainland just a few minutes away.

I visited these about 20 years ago with a friend and we had to jump a gate and walk up through someone's olive groves.  These stones were all that we could see back then but they were being excavated.  One of the tombs, it says, was the height of a three storey building.

As you can see they are in an impressive location on a rise overlooking the sea.  Hope I can visit them again.

Nearby are the remains of  the ancient city of Troizina.  I have visited these ruins many times in days of yore.  We have had picnics with the kids and wandered and wondered.  The ruins are hard to find, in far flung fields surrounded by herds of goats.  Once it was a city of over 20,000 and much of the remains are in the olive groves and amongst the orange and lemon trees belonging to farmers from the modern day village of Troizina.

Ruins, Ruins Everywhere

 Ancient ruins are literally everywhere in Greece. Every step you take you are treading on the ruins of an  older civilization,  roman or greek.

We live within sight of the ruins of the 520 BC  temple to Poseidon, greek god of the sea, on the hill high above the sheltered harbor of Vagonia.  This whole area was a large port town straggling up the hill from the sea to the temple and it's sanctuaries.  All this is now hidden beneath the earth and the  ministry of archeology has forbidden modern building of any kind. 

Looking down from the temple on Poros to the harbor below

all this hillside would have been covered in dwellings -

now under the earth

an ancient picnic nook

what remains of the Temple to Poseidon

It's the same story all over the country.  Those with land in this area can keep chickens and put a caravan on the ground, pick their olives but are not supposed to even dig a hole in the earth. 

  Stories of burying ancient remains while digging  foundations, of finding gold coins and relics while plowing are so common and they are so true.  If you want to farm your fields or build your house you keep quiet about any finds and hide the evidence quickly, preferably under tons of cement.

On Poros and in the immediate surrounding area  there are:

- the remains of Poseidon's temple, where we have had many a great picnic.  Small grandsons enjoyed playing with their trucks in the ancient earth.  There is a piano concert held here every August full moon.  A Swedish archeology group comes every summer and spends a few weeks digging here.  We have some of the soil that has been removed from the site in our garden.  Our neighbor has all sorts of marble columns and stones in her fields .

- the remnants of an ancient temple in the sea on the opposite coast.  
 
- at  the town of Troizina, mostly farm land now,  you can visit the ruins of a healing centre and temples, all that is left of a large city.  All the local schools have trips here and my daughters have visited some of the sites which are hidden in farmers' orchards.

- the stone and 'house' of Theseus who supposedly killed the minotaur in Crete.  Legend says Theseus lifted the huge stone at age 18 and retrieved the sandals and sword left by his father. 

- 2 beehive Mycenean tombs - in a farmers olive grove.

- acropolis and volcano of Methana.

- another temple on the crossroads to Methana, still being slowly excavated.

and they are all less than half an hour away.  A little further down the road there  are 4000 year old bridges and roads, Tyrins,  the birthplace of Hercules and a palace thought to have been built by giants.  The incredible and still used 2500 year old Epidavros theatre, castles, more theatres, stadiums, acropolises and the palace of Mycenae, home of Agamemnon who led the expedition to Troy to bring back Helen (of Troy).

the magnificent theatre of Epidavros

340 BC and still used for summer performances of

classical greek plays.  Holds up to 13,000 spectators.

The stone seats at night are still hot from a day in the blazing

sun.  They are also very hard.  Bring your own cushion.

Mycenean Bridge

Greece, the home of Democracy -
it all began very UNdemocratically.  Less than 20% of the population were eligible to vote.  Excluded were women, foreigners and slaves.  Modern Greek women did not get the vote until 1952.  The dowry was not abolished until 1983 and it was the same year that The New Family Law finally gave women an equal say in family matters.

My Throne

 

My ancient 'throne' amongst the remains of the Temple once dedicated to the Greek God of the Sea, Poseidon.

Here I sit and contemplate the silence, listen to the wind in the pines, enjoy the purples and lilacs of the sacred wild flowers before continuing on my daily walk

K told me recently that there has been discussion about the site on social media.  It is not by chance they say that the temple was built on this site.  If you walk barefoot between the ruins you can feel the energy from the earth and become charged with strength and wellbeing.

Well, well, well (3 holes in the ground), say I.  

I haven't felt any charge of sacred electricity but I haven't walked there barefoot.

I'll try when the weather gets warmer and more indusive to walking without socks and shoes.

There is a blog post coming up about the temple.  I have the photos but not the blah,blah.