Sanctuary of Aesculapius and the Ruins of Mycenae

The entrance to the tomb of Atreaus.

The Sanctuary of Easculapius

April 8, 2006

We left Napulia for Athens. Today we are going to be visiting Corinth!! I’ve been waiting the entire trip to come here. Before going to Corinth we had a few other places to see. We first visited the Sanctuary of Aesculapius amphitheatre. This place was very cool and amazing and I even cried. Dana and Ang had been talking about this place the entire trip. Aesculapius is considered by the Greeks to be the god of medicine. He was the son of Apollo and a mortal woman. The amphitheatre was built in the 4th century B.C. It has been known for its acoustics and performers don’t even need microphones for people at the top to hear them as if they were sitting right next to them.

Nina, our guide, started the demonstration of the acoustics by dropping coins and crumpling paper and tearing the paper in the middle of the theatre. I sat higher and it was amazing the clarity that you could hear everything with. Nina allowed people to try the acoustics by performing. Dana sang “You Raised Me Up” and it was so beautiful and I cried because the last time she sang that song was at Terri’s funeral. I taped her and Ang singing and it was hard to tape it while crying!!

After leaving the amphitheatre, we drove to a pottery place and watch a guy make a pot and another paint a large pot. We also shopped for some items while we were there. We then took a short drive to the tomb of Atreaus and the location of the ruins of Mycenae.
The tomb is where the king of Agamemmon was buried. It dates back to 13th Century B.C. There are other tombs that exist in Greece, but this was the biggest and most preserved. Dana and I posed as lions in front of the entrance. It kind of smelled bad inside but it is a tomb and what do you expect- it’s not going to smell like roses!!

We crossed the road to the Mycenae Acropolis. The king was the only one to permanently live behind the walls. When there was danger those living outside the walls in town would enter inside the walls for protection. The walls were about six feet wide. We entered the acropolis through the Lion’s Gate. The acropolis was destroyed by fire and an earthquake (by this time, it seems like a theme). Inside the gate was a grainery because in excavation, they found jugs with carbonized grain inside (how cool is that!).

It was a neat area to visit. The poems of Homer describe many of the ruins we visited along our journey through Greece or ruins that were nearby. There was a monument to the prophet Elijah nearby. I walked to the top of the ruins. It was so peaceful up there and the scenery reminded me of Oregon.

We left the area and stopped in town for a bite to eat. The owner of the restaurant, a little old man, broke plates for us! We encouraged him to break a few more by yelling “Opah!!!” and he did a couple more and then stopped. We had been wanting someone to break plates, the entire time we were there but everyone- except him said no.