Olympia and Mycenae

Trip Start Mar 28, 2008
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16
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Trip End Jun 11, 2008


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Flag of Greece  , Peloponnese,
Sunday, July 13, 2008

Friday morning started off bright and early again, not quite as early as Thursday--we left at 8am this time. We got to the archaeological site fairly quickly and again had a guide take us around. The guides told us about the sites, along with some facts about the life of the time and the construction, what the sites' use was, etc. Olympia was the site of the first Olympic Games--they were started in 776 BC and lasted until the 4th century AD, and then the modern Olympics began in 1896 in Athens and continue on the cycle that we all know love and cherish (except they started as only summer games and winter games were added in the mid-20th century). People from all over Greece would venture to Olympia for the games, and at that time all wars were to stop and all Greeks were to unite under their common nation while the games were being held. For this reason, there are more temples (and larger ones) built on this site than others that we had visited. There was also a more extensive gymnasium and 'training grounds' than other sites, as well as a water supply building with a water basin and fountain
Port city of Patras
Port city of Patras
. Once you get past all the buildings, there is the entrance to the stadium. Now it is open, with only a single arch connecting the once-was tunnel that the athletes would run through at the start of the games. The stadium itself is 192 meters long--the longest in history--and is set into the hillside so that all could gather on the hills to watch. The whole site of Olympia is in the shadow of a mountain (not Mt Olympus) and people can climb up the mountain to look at the entire site from that view.

An interesting fact (I thought) was that the temple of Olympic Zeus (one of the largest in all of Greece) was actually not the first temple to be built on the site. The first temple built was actually one dedicated to Zeus' wife Hera. People aren't really too sure why a temple to Hera was the first to be built, or really any information at all as to the motive, but they do know that it is so.

After we got to wander around the site ourselves, and some people decided to have a foot race in the stadium (the first sport in the Olympic Games) we were taken into the museum and shown the findings and artifacts and what not. We then left Olympia and headed to Mycenae--another 3 or so hour bus ride. Luckily these buses weren't just school buses or something like that, it was a fairly decent chartered bus--not the best by any means, but one that was fairly comfortable and did have AC (oh how I had missed the need for AC)
Cafe in patras
Cafe in patras
.

Ok, I admit, I do not know a lot about Mycenae. What I do know is that the Mycenaeans were one of the oldest civilizations in ancient Greece. They were a people before what we typically consider as 'ancient Greece'. They lived sometime between the Minoans on Crete and the people of the 5th century BC forward. If you know of Homer's The Illiad, you know that Agamemnon was the Mycenaean king. At the entrance to the fortress (once thought to be the only site, but it is now thought that there is a whole city still buried), there is a stone with 2 lions depicted and it is called 'The Lion's Gate'. Again, I do not know as much about this site as some of the others, but I know that it is significant in its age and the fact that it is still being excavated and may change the way that Mycenae is viewed today.

From this point we ventured to Tolo where we stayed for the night. This city was fairly close to Nafplio where we would go the next morning. This is where I would scrape my knee (where there is a scar now) and get attacked my mosquitos. In one nights time I got 23 bites on one half of my face (probably happened when I was sleeping, and thus the reason for only one half). Overall good experience though--we got to go to the beach and the pool and relax.

Next stop: Nafplio
Olympia hotels Slideshow

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