OUR GREEK ODYSSEY - Week 7
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The journey over the mountains from Laconia was one of the most spectacular ever, involving 4,000 feet of descent down the canyon-like Dafnon Gorge to the coast at Leonidio. We camped at a village called Drepano just outside Nafplio, an elegant town with a cosmopolitan feel. Our camp was on a sheltered corner of the Argolic Gulf, and the milder climate here seemed to have protected the orange trees which elsewhere had suffered so disastrously last winter. Photo 1 shows the almost tropical-looking beach by our campsite. But warm weather and water produce another problem - mosquitoes! Having been semi-devoured during a sleepless night, we needed an effective solution which no amount of creams or sprays could provide. The answer was a Bagon-diffuser, not something out of Startrek, but a device plugged into an electrical socket evaporating the liquid in its container - and the mossies don't like it at all. We found the gadget in a Greek supermarket, and how we solved the problem of an ill-matched continental plug is another story. But we've not seen another mossie since, thank goodness. Before we left Argolis, we wanted to visit several key sites. The first of these at Lerna on the opposite side of the Gulf, had been excavated in the 1950s, and had revealed what turned out to be the oldest known human settlement on the Greek mainland, occupied since Neolithic times, 5,000 BC. The crucial find was a palace-like structure dating from around 2,500 BC, 1000 years older than the Mycenaean settlements we had been visiting. This had become known as the House of Tiles, from the baked clay roofing tiles found among the debris of the palace's destruction around 2,200 BC. Here was the first ever known European usage of terracotta as a roofing material. For us, there was a sense of awesome wonder, standing here among the carefully preserved excavations of a palace inhabited by pre-Greek-speaking peoples, and brought back to life over 4,000 years after its destruction. This experience was certainly one of the trip's highlights, enhanced by the sweet smell from the surrounding orange groves. The visit to Nafplio Archaeological Museum, which houses many of the finds from sites in the area, was a non-event - irritatingly it was closed for renovation. But our other visit that day to the Mycenaean palace-citadel of Tiryns more than compensated. Described by Homer as 'Tiryns of the Great Walls', the fortress is set on a low hill commanding the surrounding Argolic coastal plain. The massive walls still exist - you drive along and there they are - as impressive now as when the citadel was built around 1500 BC. Legend has it that giant masons, the Cyclops, were employed to construct the walls from blocks of limestone so huge that human hands could never have lifted them into place. Tiryns was allied with nearby Mycenae and made a major contribution to the Greek expedition against Troy, but like other similar Mycenaean palace-fortresses, Tiryns was destroyed by unknown invaders around 1,100 BC. However many times we visit Tiryns, the sense of wonderment never diminishes, standing in 3,000 year old royal apartments (with better sanitation than many Greek campsites today!), looking out onto the world of the 21st century as traffic roars by along the nearby main road to Argos. In continuing our journey northwards, we stopped at Epidavros, the ancient medical Sanctuary of the hero Asklepios, who inherited the powers of healing from his divine father, Apollo. People came from all around the ancient Greek world seeking cures from all manner of ills. Some of the treatments were surprisingly scientific, others downright grotesquely primitive. Like all ancient sanctuaries, an essential feature was athletic competitions and dramatic performances. Epidavros has one of the. best preserved ancient Greek theatres, which is still used today for performances of classical dramas. Photo 2 shows Epidavros' theatre, built in the 4th century BC in a natural fold of the hillside and accommodating an audience of 14,000. It is truly an amazing sight. On Saturday, we reached Isthmia near to Corinth, the final stage of our Peloponnesian tour, in order to visit the site of Ancient Corinth. 'Wealthy Corinth' as Homer called it, occupied a favourable position at a land and sea cross-roads, and developed as a cosmopolitan trading centre. The original settlement had been on the craggy 1,900 feet hill of Acrocorinth, but the classical city developed on the lower plateau with ports on both the Corinthian and Saronic Gulf. The fertile hinterland produced olives and vines, and the city's workshops high quality ceramic wares which were exported across the ancient world. The city's wealth and its notorious reputation for luxury and vice became proverbial, but making misguided political alliances brought about Corinth's destruction by the Romans in 146 BC. But entrepreneurs don't stay down long, and within 100 years, Corinth again was top-dog in the wealth and luxury league. St Paul spent time there in 52 AD trying to persuade the Corinthians out of their decadent life style, but they simply threw him out, and not even one of the BOF's famous epistles had much effect on Corinth. Most of the excavated remains are from the Roman period of the city's history, but the spectacular 6th century BC Temple of Apollo still stands supreme over the site - Photo 3 shows this, set against the back-drop of the Acrocorith fortified acropolis. Just to the north, the 4 miles wide Isthmus of Corinth is cut through by the famous Corinth Canal, which in effect makes the Peloponnese a true island separated from the mainland of Central Greece. Opened in 1893, it is not much used nowadays, but we did photograph this small tanker passing through the spectacular 200 feet deep dead straight cut - see Photo 4. We have spent longer in the Peloponnese than originally planned, leaving just over 3 weeks for a foreshortened period in Central Greece, where we move next week, first to Delphi to consult the famous oracle of Apollo. Sheila and Paul Published: Thursday 27 May
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7 news: our Epistle
from Corinthia
