We went to settle our bill and the owner told us that he was
going out fishing and there would be fish on the menu tonight. Drat, drat and
treble drat! We really wanted to have some of his fresh fish but we were
leaving today and heading slowly north. We paid our bill - €20 per night for a
pitch right by the water’s edge and with that lovely view – excellent value.
We started by investigating Vivari, the next village and a very pleasant,
small, seaside resort with a few tempting tavernas, obviously catering for the
local hotels and also sailing boats and flotillas that must visit.
Although we had assumed that Tiryns would be closed on a Tuesday, we discovered
that there was a chance that it was open. We headed there and found that, not
only was it open but it didn’t close until 20:00, in contrast to the official
site that said that it was closed on Tuesdays and closed at 15:30 every other
day. Summer opening times had started but the website hadn’t been updated. The
Cyclopean walls of Tiryns are very impressive, as is the rest of the site but
it is still how we remember Greek sites in the bad old days. There was no
leaflet or guide book available. They are doing essential repairs to
consolidate part of the site and that was, understandably, closed to the
public. Unfortunately, it is one of the most interesting parts of the site that
includes the Eastern Gallery. Boards told us about the consolidation work but
there was only one other information board in the whole of the rest of the site
and that was a map of the upper citadel. There was no explanation of the
context of the site, the age of it, nor was there any map of the extensive and
important lower citadel. For what is an extremely important Greek
archaeological site, this is very poor.
We realised that, if Tiryns was open, then our next destination, the
archaeological site of Nemea, may also be open and we drove on. Surely enough,
we arrived at the stadium of Nemea at 15:15 to discover that it was also open
until 20:00. That gave us plenty of time to view the stadium, site and museum.
Nemea was a location for the Nemean Games, one of the four most important
Panhellenic Games, and was never a town as such. Heracles strangled the Nemean
lion here as his first labour and wore its skin from then onwards. The games
were held here from 573 BC (possibly earlier) and, with a break when the temple
of Zeus burnt down, ran (sic) until 235 BC. The stadium still has the remains
of the columned building where the athletes prepared (undressed?) ready for the
races and also the ‘hidden’ tunnel that took them from that building to the
stadium. The discovery of the tunnel in 1978 was very important as it
overturned the belief of archaeologists that the Romans invented the arch. I
must say that I also thought up until today. The building of the beautifully
arched tunnel has been dated to 320 BC at the latest and definitively proves
that the Greeks invented the arch. The arch was in remarkable condition when
excavated and, after some consolidation work, the public (ourselves included)
can follow in the footsteps of the Greek athletes from the undressing area into
the stadium.
We drove the short distance to the main site and started at the museum, another
modern and well-presented one. The site was poorly signed but, unlike Tiryns,
the museum had explained everything and a model of the site, placed by a large
glass window looking directly out on to it, showed exactly what was there. The American
archaeologists have reconstructed part of the Temple of Zeus and it is very
impressive, making it much easier to imagine what the whole temple would have
looked like.
I had phoned and booked a tour and wine tasting at the Nemea Wine Cooperative
for tomorrow and so we thought that we would check out where it was before
finding somewhere to wild camp as there are no campsites in Nemea. When we got
there, the winery was closed and the large car park provided an excellent place
to stop with a view over the vineyards.
Photos: One of the small entrances into Tiryns – note the massive
blocks of stone used in its construction over 3,400 years ago; Nemea’s ‘hidden’
tunnel used by the athletes; The stadium; The Temple of Zeus with its restored
columns; A beautiful gold signet ring with a chariot scene from the Mycenaean cemetery
at Aidonia near Nemea.
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