Mycenae and Epidaurus

18^thAugust 2018

An earlier start today, we have booked a day tour to Mycenae and Epidaurus on the Peloponnese Peninsula. It looks like being a pretty full day, with pickup from a nearby hotel at 7.40am, and returning to Athens at 6.30pm.

It is also Carole’s Birthday, so we have booked dinner at the Divani Palace Acropolis Hotel rooftop restaurant overlooking the Acropolis for 8pm.

Our pickup bus took us to a central meeting point where we changed buses and headed off on our tour with only about 13 people, a great sized group for this type of tour.

First stop was the Corinth Canal, a canal cut through the Isthmus of Corinth, a narrow neck that connects the Peloponnese Peninsula to the mainland. Built in the 1890’s to provide a shorter route to Athens rather than having to sail around the Peninsula and more importantly, to attract people to Corinth which was normally bypassed due to the inconvenience of having to sail back out around the peninsula to get to Athens.

Corinth Canal

The canal is 6.3 km long and only 24 m wide. There is plenty of bridge clearance where the road crosses at the midpoint, but at either end, the road crosses only a few metres above sea level. If vessels wish to pass, they sink the road bridges and often come up with a feed of fish when the are raised again.  At this stop we had a chance to get a quick snack for breakfast.

An hour or so further  on, we came to the remains of the Acropolis of Mycenae. This ancient city was heavily fortified and was at one time the most important city in ancient Greece. The Mycean Civilisation dominated much of the Southern Mediterranean from around 1500 to 110 BC. The King Agamemnon launched the Trojan war to rescue his brother’s wife Helen, who was abducted by the Trojan’s.

Located high on a hill, the city was heavily fortified

The best known feature of Mycenae is the Lion Gate at the entrance to the city. They two Lions that adorn the top of the gate are thought to be the one of oldest original sculptures in the World. 

Lion Gate

Looking back through the Lion Gate

Inside the city is a larger burial area, in the form of a stone walled circle. Archaeologists found the remains of 19 people, assumed to be part of the Kings family and around 14 kg of gold artifacts including face masks, some of which were small enough to be for children.

Grave Circle

Up on the top if the hill is bare remains of what was the Palace. Further remains of granaries, houses for the wealthy (the peasants lived outside the walls), a cistern for the collection and storage of fresh water, and several small buildings thought to be workshops for artisans.

All that is left of the Palace is the foundation

The walled city is very spread out and must have been quite imposing it it's day

Posterior gate

Like most of these cities of the Ancient World, Mycenae was located on the sea shore. These days you can only see the ocean in the distance as the shoreline is now lower and many km from the city. There are many theories about the movement in the sea level, but no real facts to support any of them. The city is now surrounded by a fertile valley that looks very much like an alluvial floodplain.

Olive plantations

Ocean in the far distant background

Not far from the acropolis is a large Mycean tomb, called the Treasury of Atreus. It is a massive cone shaped building covered in earth to resemble a hill. It is still in remarkably good condition, but when discovered by archaeologists it had already been looted and was empty. There was some evidence it had been discovered by farmers, who had used it to shelter livestock.

Mycenaen tomb entrance

Circular base of the tomb

Conical Structure

It is now lunch ime, and we stop at a Hotel, that appears to be in the middle of nowhere, but is in fact only about 4 km from Nafplio, which we visited on the Galileo. We had decided not to buy the lunch included package on the tour and are pleased we did. We just had something light and there was a good selection to choose from.

Soon we were back on the road for a brief visit to Nafplio, before continuing on to our final destination, Epidaurus. We had already spent the best part of a day at Nafplio last week, so used our half hour to enjoy a gelato a had a short walk around.

Epidaurus, our next stop, was the site of the first medical centre in Greece. Although the main feature is a huge amphitheatre which is in amazing condition and is still regularly used for plays and concerts. The story about the medical centre is a bit sketchy, but it seems that over time medical greats like Hippocrates were based here and some of the bases of modern medicine were born here some 2,500 years ago.

There was a small museum, but like Mycenae, most of the antiquities have been removed from the site and are stored in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

We were back in Athens at our apartment by 7pm, just in time for a quick shower, change of clothes and a 5 minute walk down the road to our dinner venue.

By now the temperature had dropped to a comfortable , so sitting outside with a view of the Acropolis was very pleasant. Sharon and John were kind enough to buy a bottle of French Champagne to celebrate Carole’s birthday, which made the night that little bit more special.

Birthday Dinner

It was a nice meal, and as usual, there was plenty of it.

Tomorrow we board the Viking Orion for the next part of our adventure.