Across the Corinth Canal

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

Today our tour of mainland Greece was to leave from a hotel near Syntagama Square in Athens at half past eight, so we rose early, had a quick breakfast, and were out the door. Surprisingly we were able to hail a taxi going towards town within just a couple of minutes. We shortly realized that it was Saturday, and that this phenomenon must have been due to this fact. We arrived at the hotel in plenty of time and our tour departed promptly at 8:30, unfortunately we were about 15 minutes into our drive out of Athens when our tour guide’s phone rang in the middle of her talk, she excused herself to take the call. I find it funny how while someone can be speaking another language you can often figure things out from their tone and body language. I had no idea what she was saying, but I knew we were going back to the hotel, and sure enough as soon as she got off the phone she asked if anyone on the bus was there for the one day tour and sure enough two people raised their hands, not sure how they hadn’t spoken up as she had been going on about our itinerary for the next four days, they must have been a bit dense I suppose. So we turned around dropped them off and were back on our way by 9:00.

We drove about an hour and a half outside of Athens towards the Peloponnese Peninsula of Greece. We made our first stop for coffee and a photo opportunity near Corinth just across the Corinth Canal. The Corinth Canal is 25 meters wide, 6 kilometers long, and 9 meters deep, it took 10 years to build and opened in 1893 and was an ancient dream finally realized. The area of Corinth has been occupied since ancient times and throughout its history, its rulers have tried and failed to build a canal connecting the Aegean Sea on the East of the Peninsula with the Ionian Sea on the West. In ancient times and throughout antiquity when attempts to build a canal failed, the path was paved and rails added and the Corinthians literally dragged ships and their cargo from one side to the other.

After our short stop in Corinth we continued for about an hour to the ancient side of Epidaurus. Epidaurus was a healing center in ancient times, a sanctuary to Asclepius, son of Apollo. The archeological site of Epidaurus has uncovered the ruins of a stadium which show that athletics, or exercise was used in Epidaurus as a means of healing. Additionally, Epidaurus’s most famous ruin is that of its one of a kind theater, used for mental stimulation and healing. The theater dates to the 4th century B.C. and is made entirely of limestone with the exception of the front row of seats, which were reserved for dignitaries, and were made of lyguno marble which is of a pinkish color and is quarried in the surrounding area. The theater can hold 12-15,000 people and has not only the best acoustics of the ancient theaters but is also the only Greek theater that remained unchanged by the Romans. The Romans often altered Greek theaters, adding stage buildings, etc. However, in the case of the theater at Epidaurus, the Romans were too afraid of ruining its unique acoustics, and only added to column gates at either side of the theater.

From Epidaurus we drove a short distance to the Venetian inspired port town of Nafplios. Nafplios was in fact Greece’s first capitol when it gained its independence from the Ottoman Turks in the early 1830’s, however by the mid 1830’s the capitol was moved to Athens. In the hills surrounding Nafplios can be found two fortresses, the older of which dates back to the crusades, and the newer Fortress was used throughout numerous Greek wars and is famous for its 999 steps. Another familiar site in Nafplios is the “castle in the sea” which had been used as a prison in the past, and is now a nightclub and bar.

After our brief photo op in Nafplios we continued on to the ancient city of Mycenae. The city of Mycenae dates to 1600 B.C., and means “mushrooms”. The story of its founding is as follows. A warlord was traveling around looking for a place to build his palace. The warlord stopped when he came upon a natural spring and asked his servant to fetch his gold cup so that he might have a drink of fresh water. The servant was so embarrassed when he discovered that he had forgotten his master’s golden cup, so he looked around frantically for a solution. The servant saw around him hundreds of mushrooms, so he took one of the mushrooms, removed its stem and filled the cap with water and presented it to his master. The warlord was pleased, and said that there was no need to go any further that he would make his palace here, on this site with all the mushrooms. The two main archeological sites in Mycenae are the Treasury of Atreus and the Citadel. The Treasury of Atreus is in fact a large above ground family grave, the latest type, which imitated a pyramid and took the shape of a beehive. From the outside the grave appeared just as a hill as the entrance was filled in, unless they were burying someone. 9 such graves have been discovered in the area, all have been emptied and plundered, but this one was the nicest of them all, thus why archeologists believe that it belonged to Atreus, father of Agamemnon. Mycenae’s other famous site, the Citadel, is home to infamous Grave Circle A, Grave Circle B, and the Lion’s Gate. Famous archeologist, Schliemann (about whom we had heard of first in Troy), had been looking for Mycenae because of the Homeric poems which described it as covered in Gold, and as we know from Troy, Schliemann was very interested in the treasure’s of ancient times, Schliemann did not know that Homer was referring not to the gold of “treasure” but of the golden color of the landscape. Schliemann got lucky however, when he finally did uncover gold within the walls of the citadel and the famous Lions’ Gate (1240 B.C.) in what is now referred to as Grave Circle A which dates to the 16th century B.C. Schliemann uncovered 5 of the 6 grave shafts in 1876. Many of the treasures from Grave Circle A and Grave Circle B (located outside the wall dating to 1600 B.C.) can now be seen at the National Archeology Museum and are shown in our pictures from our visit there just yesterday.

After some time to explore Mycenae on our own we went into town to have a late lunch (around 3:00pm). After lunch we got back on the bus for a 4-5 hour drive to Olympia. Upon arrival at our hotel in Olympia, we settled into our room before grabbing dinner and heading off to bed.