Wednesday 2nd April 2008

It is the presence of three very well preserved Greek temples that attract many visitors to Paestum. They come on day trips from the Naples / Sorento area (including cruises stopping for Pompeii, Herculaneum etc) and Paestum is included in many archaeological tours. Even this early in April, we certainly were not alone at the site. Surprisingly, the predominant nationality was French and almost exclusively school trips. We have always said that compared with German, Dutch and British holidaymakers, we hardly come across the French ...... except at major archaeological sites. The French seem to have a healthy interest in archaeology but when it comes to beaches, mountains, scenery, history and, of course, food and wine, they have it all in their own country and therefore don't feel the need to travel as much as we do. However despite the coach trips, there was still plenty of space for us all both on the site and in the museum.
There had been a presence in the area since prehistoric times but the town of Paestum was established by Greek settlers from Achaia on the Greek mainland in the 6th century BC and they named it Poseidonia. They built the their town and the three temples dedicated to Hera (550 – 540 BC), Athena (end of the 6th century BC) and Apollo in his role as a healer (middle of the 5th century BC and incorrectly known as the Temple of Neptune). The Romans took over the town in the 3rd century BC and renamed it Paestum but continued to worship the Greek gods and indeed made additions to the Greek sacred monuments such as adding an altar to the eastern frontage of the Temple of Apollo. There is evidence that this area was a melting pot of cultures with Roman, Greek, Etruscan and Lucanian influences. The site was eventually abandoned due to the encroaching malarial swamp, the shrinking of the Roman Empire and raids by Saracens.
The state of preservation of the temples is quite remarkable with the Temple of Apollo having two storeys of pillars, something that I don't remember seeing in any other temple. The Romans built houses over the Greek Agora and the low level remains of these can still be seen. There is also an amphitheatre, a Greek Ekklesiaterion (political assembly building), many altars and other small buildings but the temples attract all of the attention. The extensive walls (4.7 km) are intact to a reasonable height in many places and there are very large areas of the town that remain unexcavated.
It was about a mile and a half to the site but the walk was very pleasant in the warm sunny weather and also gave us a very good view of the walls. Every step that we took on that walk and around the site resulted in the rapid movement of brightly coloured lizards, we must have seen hundreds during the day. We arrived back well exercised and educated and, after an Italian sausage casserole with red wine, tomato, basil and olives, we settled down to sleep with the sound of the waves lapping gently on the beach.
Photos: Paestum – the Temple of Apollo – the best preserved and most impressive temple; Part of the Tomb of the Diver – the diver symbolises the passage of life to the ocean of death where man is able to find knowledge that is not accessible in life; one of the hundreds of Paestum lizards takes an interest in some discarded cheese.