Amygdalia's Blog

Greece, part 2 - the sites

Of course one can’t visit Greece and not go see the sites.  There is such a wealth of history in the area that it’s next to impossible to see everything there is to be seen.  We did, however, manage to cover quite a bit of ground during our time in Athens and its environs. 

Beginning at the beginning (because it would be silly to begin anywhere else) . . . on our first full day in Athens we headed to the Acropolis.  We walked up through Plaka, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, right in the shadow of the Acropolis.  Little souvenir shops, cafes and tavernas line the quaint little streets, providing a haven for both tourists and locals alike.  Up the hill via one of the steep staircases, we easily found Anafiotika, literally carved out of the hillside abutting the Acropolis.  While this tiny village was built in the 19th century by workers from the island of Anafi, who had come to Athens to help with the rapid expansion of the city, it looks as though it could have been there from ancient times.  In fact, I’m fairly certain it was used as part of the setting for a screen adaptation of Lysistrata that I saw many years ago.  Tiny little whitewashes homes and pathways curve and wind their way up the hill, trees and even grape vines adorning the paths.  Up and out of Anafiotika is the road leading to the Acropolis.  From this road one can view the ruins of the ancient Agora, with the beautifully preserved Temple of Hephestus off to one side.  Beyond is the area known as Monastiraki, with more shops and outdoor eateries.  Beyond that the city sprawls almost as far as the eye can see.

Once through the entrance gate to the Acropolis, the stairs and pathways are lined with mementos of a long history.  Fallen pieces of marble columns, capitals, entablatures and stelae remain, some carved with designs or inscriptions.  Marble staircases lead the visitor past the Temple of Athena Nike and up through the Propylaea, or entrance gate, onto the Acropolis proper.  The Parthenon looms ahead to the right, the most important temple at the site.  Ahead to the left is the smaller Erectheon, with its Karyatid columns, formed in the shape of young women. 

I was struck, during this visit, by how much scaffolding and evident construction work is visible.  During my time studying in Greece, I had the incredible opportunity to visit the interior of the Parthenon, along with my classmates.  We’d been invited, through the head of our program, to watch the moving of a single column within the Parthenon.  Sadly, after standing in the damp chill for something like two hours, we were told that the weather conditions were not right for this move to be attempted.  In any case, at that time only work was being done to preserve what was intact, and to keep the structure from becoming unstable.  Now it seems that they are doing more work to reconstruct many of the structures. 

We took a half day bus tour out to Cape Sounion, at the very tip of the peninsula of Attica (the part of Greece to which Athens belongs).  The bus ride out was incredible, with breathtaking views of the Saronic Gulf and many small dry islands.  On the rocky promontory of Cape Sounion is the Temple of Poseidon, god of the sea.  One of the most famous visitors to this site was Lord Byron, who fell in love with Greece just as I did on my first visit.  He left his mark by carving his name into one of the columns of the temple.  It was not difficult to see why he loved this spot, nor difficult to see why the ancient Greeks would have chosen it for a temple to Poseidon.  With the winds blowing, and the sparkle of the seas below in 3 directions, Cape Sounion is a place of peace and contemplation.  It was also, according to legend, the place from where Aegeas threw himself into the sea, after wrongly assuming that his son Theseus had died at the hoofs of the Minotaur on Crete.  The sea beyond, the Aegean, was named for him. 

Our visit to the sanctuary of Delphi was frustrating only in that we simply felt too rushed to see the site properly.  Our bus tour drove right past the lovely little Temple of Athena Pronaia, with its 3 remaining columns built in a curved pattern that hints at its once former tholos, or round shape.  The setting of the sanctuary is simply stunning, and photographs can not come close to doing it justice.  Deep within the mountains, with the land falling away to one side, and the Gulf of Corinth visible in the distance, for many centuries Delphi was the site of the Oracle.  People from all over the Greek world would come to hear their fortunes, and pay tribute to the god Apollo.  Treasury houses from the different city-states lined the steep pathway up to the Temple of Apollo.  Beyond the temple the path continues to climb up the mountain, first to the theater of Dionysius, and then even higher still, to a stadium at the very top, where footraces were run.  Sadly, we did not have the time (nor the breath) to make it all the way up to the stadium.

We visited three museums in the city of Athens, as well as the one at Delphi.  The National Archaeological Museum has changed quite a bit since my last visit.  Sadly, an earthquake in 1999 damaged many of the pieces, and while quite a few were repaired, my favorite room is no longer in existence.  The lovely little Minoan villa with the colorful frescos depicting sea scenes and boys bull leaping is gone, with only a few fragments remaining, having been moved to one of the main rooms. 

At the request of my husband, we also visited the Numismatic Museum, beautifully laid out in the house owned by Heinrich Schliemann.  It was a fascinating look at the history of currency, from the first known instances through the present.  Also part of the exhibit were items showing different forging and minting techniques. 

Having visited the Jewish Museum of Greece in its previous location, I was excited to see how it had been transformed.  I was most fascinated by the newest exhibit, the results of a research study begun in 2000.  Greek Jews who had been alive and remembered the times before World War II were asked to share their memories – memories of their neighborhoods, the people, what life was like, etc.  It was both a fascinating glimpse into a time now past, and also into the minds of people who would have been children during World War II.  What are the memories, what are the things that they’ve held onto for 60 years?  Old photographs completed the exhibit.

There were, of course, more places that we visited, but I hope this will give a sense of the trip as a whole.  I cannot wait to go back again.