Olympia

The last stop on our Greek odyssey was the birthplace of the Olympic games - the fair city of Olympia.

Olympia is on exactly the other side of the Peloponnese from Corinth, so our bus journey from Corinth to Pyrgos (from which we transferred to Olympia) was a scenic one. The bus stuck mainly to the coast and out our window we got to watch the Peloponnesian countryside go by.

There isn’t really a modern city next to ancient Olympia. Instead, there’s a little tourist town built up by the Olympics in Athens in 2004. They held the opening ceremonies in Olympia, and they light all of the Olympic torches in the Temple of Hera.

The site is quite beautiful. Like many of the ancient Greek sites, it’s in the wilderness (sort of). There are lots of trees and lots of lizards and snakes. It definitely adds atmosphere to the photos.

I have a theory that they strategically place trees and bushes to make for better shots for the tourists.

Olympia was also the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the statue of Zeus at Olympia. That makes it the third site of the Wonders that I’ve seen!

The museum at Olympia is so amazing, they have molds used to make the colossal statue of Zeus.

And of course, there’s the Olympic stadium:

But it’s a bit anti-climactic.

Korinthos

Our destination after Delphi was the city of Corinth, called Korinthos in modern Greek.

Modern and ancient Korinthos shared the same prime geographical location - the Isthmus of Corinth is the narrowest stretch of land on the Peloponnese, the shortest passage between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf - from the Ionian Sea to the Aegean Sea.

It’s largely because of the Isthmus that Corinth became an important Greek city. In fact, it was one of the most important city states in Classical Greece. And it was the capital of the Roman Province of Greece during the Empire.

The modern city of Korinthos is largely an industrial hub, shaped by the Corinth Canal, which was cut across the Isthmus in 1881. But the idea of the Corinth Canal originated much earlier, with Nero. He ordered the building of a canal across the Isthmus in 67 CE, but died soon after and his plans were scrapped by Galba.

We stayed in the modern city of Korinthos, unfortunately. It wasn’t a terribly nice place and there didn’t seem to be anywhere at all to eat. I’m also fairly sure we were the only people staying in our giant hotel. There were tons of stray dogs, and if you were nice to them they followed you around.

We escaped to the ancient city as soon as possible in the morning. It turned out to be a much nicer place.

What remains of Ancient Corinth is mostly Roman. We didn’t see much of the Greek city. It was heavily redeveloped as the Roman capital of Greece, and therefore boasts of Roman style forum and some really great plumbing.

It’s amazing how much of the city still remains. There was so much to see. I hadn’t been to an archaeological site this big since I was in Pompeii and Ostia.

It was an incredibly rainy day - which really threw us off after nearly a week of intense heat - but it was a great site to visit. I think next time, though, I’d stay in Ancient Corinth instead.

The sacred mountains

After our class tour of Athens, complete with presentations, long walks uphill and a few failed dinner plans, Chandra and I headed to Delphi.

Once we finally found the bus station, we boarded the sketchiest bus ever. On the way to the bus station I practiced saying Delphi in Greek. It’s pronounced “thel-fon,” like saying “cell phone” with a lisp. Luckily, I never had to embarrass myself because it only takes one bus to get to Delphi and it’s all quite straight forward (we began to appreciate this more once we tried to get to Corinth and Olympia… more on this later!)

We arrived in Delphi as the sun was beginning to set. Over the mountains. It was, from the first moment, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

We checked into our hotel, then spent the next hour or so chasing the sunset. I wanted to get the perfect picture, and we were willing to risk asp-filled fields to get it! How many times will you get a chance to take a photo of Delphi at sunset?

I was waiting for the sun to disappear behind the mountain… Finally, it did.

As I stood, awed and amazed, I realized that I had never really been to place with mountains like these. They made the most beautiful shades of blues I have ever seen.

We ate dinner at a restaurant overlooking the sunset. It was perfect. We stayed in the best hotel of the trip. And the next morning we found out that it’s just as beautiful during the day.

We went to the archaeological site for the day. Delphi was the most important Panhellenic (which means that Greeks from all city states could worship there) sanctuary in Classical Greece. It was a sacred oracle dedicated to Apollo. If you had an question about your future, you could ask the Pythia, beautiful young priestesses who would tell you the word of Apollo. Of course, like most oracles, it’s all about interpretation.

It’s not hard to understand why the Greeks would find this site sacred.

Because of Delphi’s status - both as an important sanctuary and as neutral ground for all Greeks - it eventually became a very important place to control. The Athenians used it as their main treasury when they formed the Delian League (a united Greece under the rule of Athens), and many city states built treasuries or dedications on the site to show their wealth or power.

Delphi really was one of the most stunning places I’ve ever visited, historically and geographically - though I’d argue that, like much of the ancient world, Delphi’s importance is undeniably linked to its geography.

Athens

Before New York City, London and Rome, there was Athens. Athens was the centre of the Greek world for a long time. It was the centre of the beginning of what we like to call Western civilization - home of philosophers like Plato and Socrates, of playwrights like Aeschylus, Eurypides and Sophocles. It was the birth place of democracy. There is no denying that our cultural and intellectual roots can be traced back to Athens.

I fell in love with this city, almost immediately. I say almost because our first impression was largely biased by the fact that it was 9pm, we hadn’t eaten since 1 and we were incredibly lost (more on this later!). But as soon as we found our hotel, dropped off our bags and walked through the Plaka to a great restaurant nearby, I knew that I was going to love Athens.

You could see the Acropolis from our hotel balcony.

It was pretty freaking cool.

But that wasn’t the only thing.

The Theatre of Dionysus, where you can imagine a stunning performance of Antigone or Oedipus the King:

The Erechtheion, the other temple on the Acropolis:

The Karameikos, the earliest Athenian cemetery:

The massive Olympieion, temple to Olympian Zeus:

And the beautiful Hephaisteion, overlooking the Agora:

Just to name a few. We were only in Athens for four days. I could have stayed weeks.

The labyrinth city

One of the main reasons I chose Newcastle for my MA was the two study trips with Greek and Roman Archaeology. In January, we went to Rome for four days. The planned trip to Greece was only Athens for two days, but since I have dreamed of visiting Greece since I was a six year old reading mythology picture books, I had to see more than just Athens.

And so, Chandra and I planned a ten day trip designed to see as much of Greece as possible - and still spend a bit of time in the sun.

The first place we went was Crete. We flew from Manchester to Heraklion, the modern city from which you can visit ancient Knossos.

Instead of staying in the city, we stayed outside at a nice little hotel with a pool and a short walk to the beach. After all, us Canadians (pale as we might be) are used to a warm summer that we’re fairly certain not to get in the Northeast of England this year, so we had to get some much needed Vitamin D while we could.

Our first discovery from Greece was the wonderful food:

And a beer named Mythos, which is like, perfect!

The next day we headed into Heraklion to find our way to Knossos, the ruins of the legendary Minoan city that dates back to about 1700 BCE. It’s the famous city of King Minos and the Minotaur, of the Labyrinth built by Daedalus. It was excavated by the infamous Sir Arthur Evans, starting in about 1900 CE.

And why is Evans infamous?

It has to do with both archaeological theory and the ethics of restoration. Evans restored and reconstructed a number of buildings on the site, something that no archaeologist would dare to do nowadays. It wasn’t long before his British colleagues were pronouncing the reconstructions as wrong. To this day, Evans is used as a bad example in archaeology textbooks.

But the people of Crete see Evans in a different light. Unlike many of the antiquarian archaeologists of the early 20th century, Evans didn’t expropriate the artefacts from Knossos to a fancy cabinet of curiosities in England. He left the site and all its finds to the people of Crete. So they kind of love him.

Part of me disagrees with Evans’ reconstructions, but the other part of me recognizes that it makes the site a hell of a lot more interesting to visit. And to take photos of. Like our tour guide said, it’s easy to imagine yourself back in ancient Knossos.

After an educational morning, we retired to spend our next day and a half on the beach and swimming in the Sea of Crete.

Greece is officially my favourite holiday spot because you get archaeology and history and sun and sand.