Back to The Peloponnese , part 1.

Tegea: Sanctuary of Athena Alea, Independant City State, Modern Village, Museum
Megalopolis: Capitol of Arkadia, Modern Village
Bassae:   Bassae, located on the border of Messenia and Elis, is the home of the Ancient Temple of Epicurean Apollo .  Unless you have your own transportation or an unlimited amount of time, it will probably be too far out of the way to visit.  It also is currently under extensive renovations and a huge tent has been erected around the entire temple ( picture ).  On my second visit I finally did make it to the temple.  The isolation creates a wonderfully serene experience.  It was hot when we left Pylos but quite chilly up in the mountains at Bassae.  It was built around 450-447 BCE to show their appreciation to Apollo for ending a plague.  The temple is widely regarded as being the first to use a Corinthian column (conspicuously located in the center of the cella's back wall.  The outside was surrounded by Doric columns which today are leaning in almost every direction.  On the inside Ionic half columns lined the cella's walls.  The sculptures were taken away by the British and Germans, but the frieze of the cella was actually sold to the British Government.

Karitaina:  We took our lunch on the river Alpheos (photo ) at Karitaina, underneath the old Frankish Bridge (pictured at left).  It was a very peaceful and quiet place, though I cannot believe we actually crossed over the bridge on foot.  It is horribly dilapitated and we probably should not have even tried, but we walked on the I-beams that supported the rotted timbers. Take a look at this photo from summer 1998 and see how foolhardy we really were.  Any bridge that has a plaque which reads "repaired by Manuel Raoul Melikes in 1439 " should be carefully approached!  It is actually pictured on the reverse of the Greek 5,000 drachmae note.  The town itself sits high upon an isolated peak with a formidable fortress at the summit ( photo - large).  Very picturesque, but I have read it is quite deserted. This is a drawing from J.P. Mahaffy's book Greek Pictures, showing the town and fortress in the late 1800's.  You can also visit the Ministry of Culture's site on the Castle of Karitaina .

I did stop in Kalamata , which houses the Benakeio Archaeological Museum , but my stay was only for an hour till the next bus left.  Still, the bus station is right across the street from the old castle, so at least I was able to look at that.  When you come down from the hills above Kalamata and the Langhada Pass, the town is really a pretty sight.  It also bears the distinction of being the southermost city (city, not town) in Europe.  It was hit by a severe earthquake in the early eighties and still has some visible remnants of the disaster.

Pylos: (2,107 inhab.) The modern town here (Navarino to some) is far away from the archaeological sites, which Strabo ( 8.4.2 ) describes.  The island of Sphakteria where a few famous naval battles ( Battle of Navarino ) and a siege were fought ( Thucyidides 4.27 tells the whole story ), dominates the bay, which is in itself quite beautiful.  We were going to circle around the island in a small boat, but the wind was whipping the waves too much and we only saw the eastern side of the island.  We did get off at the site of the Russian chapel though (going up to the top of the island and the site of the Spartan defeat was not recommended by our guides unless you have some protection against the huge thorny bushes and snakes - also, no paths have been cleared there for some time).  Thanks to Brendan Boyle for the great presentation here.

The north end of the bay is the site of the classical town and the fort, but the modern town sits at the other end of the bay in this picture.  The town is quaint, has a Venetian Castle of Pylos - Niokastron which is attempting to acquire a collection centering around underwater archaeology, and really quite nice for a stopover (it does have most of the necessities).  There is also a small archaeological museum, the Antonopouleion Museum , which I did not get a chance to see.  I promised myself that I would put in a bad word against the HOTEL KARALIS (EVIL! EVIL!).  We had reservations here (group of about 24 people) but when we arrived they lied to our group leader and refused to honor their agreement.  Our leader, Ann Steiner, bless her soul, promptly gave them so much hell that I would bet they wished they had never heard of the American School before.  This was the absolute worse we were treated in our entire trip during the summer of 1998.  We wound up staying at a shabby hotel right on the town plaza, the Galaxy Hotel, but it was truly heartening when as soon as we arrived and our leader told them we would need breakfast for all of our students, the old women at the counter went out and bought the extra eggs and juice for us while we were still unloading the bus.  The people there were extremely nice to us, and considering the location, I would recommend it to those of you who can stand a night or two without AC or posh conditions. If you have been walking most of the day, it will be a relief not to climb the hill behind the harbor to get to your hotel. We ate at one of the dockside restaurants and had a fairly good meal.

Miles north of the bay at Englianos, near modern Chora , is the Palace of Nestor , a Mycenaean site which draws most of the tourists to this area.  The finds from the site are exhibited at the nearby archaeological museum of Chora .  Unfortunately the general rule that sites and museums are closed on Mondays was not excepted here (as the French guidebook claimed).  So on my first visit, I missed the site after traveling this far.   But on my second visit I made it in!  The palace was terrific and turned out to be the place we discussed the most, archaeologically, on the whole trip.  We were still talking about the timbers in the palace walls when we were in Macedonia!  The views are really nice and on my first trip, I enjoyed a couple hours sleeping by the "spring" in the parking lot, watching a German tourist have a water fight with his two young boys, while their mom looked on unamused.  There is a great guide book here, with scholarly explanations, but unfortunately it was one of the books that the Greek postal service did not succede in getting back to me.  The excavations at Englianos have proven to be a treasure mine of information for archaeologists.  The amazing but true story of the first excavator's intuitive hunch is startling.  Carl Blegen, going to the site to dig for the first time, hit the archive room of the best preserved Mycenaean Palace ever found, within a few hours of beginning the excavatiosn.  The tablets discovered there changed Aegean prehistory forever.  Today, the excavations and findings are available online, just waiting for those enterprising individuals out there like yourself to look through them.  You can access them at the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project, Internet Edition .  Do not be intimidated by all the information at this site, the summaries and reports of the digs are the easiest to handle.  There are plenty of people to thank for this information, but the folks at the University of Cincinnati have been the leaders of the digs here since its early days (Blegen taught there).  If you can deal with a little German, there is a great site with a computer reconstruction of the Palace of Nestor online at the Antikensammlung Erlangen Internet Archive.  If you are interested in seeing some first class photos of Pylos and the surrounding area, browse on over the marvelous Dr. J's Illustrated Guide to Greece - Pylos .

Messene: I do not have time to go into detail about Ancient Messene here yet (maybe this summer), but it was probably the biggest surprise to me on my second trip.  The remains of the Sanctuary of Asklepeios are unbelievable.  The site is in such a good condition that I heard rumors it will be one of the next sites that major reconstruction will be focused on.  There is a temple of Asklepeios inside a large temenos, surrounded by an odeion and a bouleterion among other things.  You can also find a theater, a large stadium, the agora, and other temples.  There are also some terrific walls, towers, and the famous Arkadian Gate.  We did not go up to the top of Mt. Ithome though, where there is a fortified acropolis and a monastery.  The University of Minnesota keeps an online site on their digs at Englianos and Messene, which can be reached at the Minnesota Archaeological Researches in the Western Peloponnese .

Methone:  We made the trip south to Methone in summer 1998 and visited the large fort there. We also sat around at the beach for a while ( photo of beach and fortress ).  The area encircled by the fortress was the site of the entire Venetian town.  It was fairly important in ancient times; Marcus Agrippa, a favorite of mine, cut off Antony's supplies from Egypt here in 31 BCE.  The small island at the south end of the fortress was the site of a massacre of the Venetian force at the hands of the Turkish troops in 1500.  It is also said, by the Blue Guide, that "the story of the captive told in 'Don Quixote' may reflect Cervantes' own experience here as a Turkish prisoner."

Olympia: (1,063 inhab.)  The major attraction for the entire region is Olympia . The town itself is very tourist friendly and rooms and meals can be found fairly cheap (see below).

Wake up early and just walk to the archaeological site of Olympia ( described by Strabo 8.3.30 ).  It is not very far at all. The area has also been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and the honor is definitely not without due!  The site is huge and you will again need a guidebook to identify all the buildings and archaeological remains (you can see the Olympian Bouleterion here).  The site can be crowded though since there are usually tour buses full of people lining the parking lots and roads back to town during the spring and summer.  The stadium, which seated around 40,000 people, is one of the easiest sites to recognize, but the Temple of Zeus should merit close attention.  It held one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the statue of Zeus .  There is also a VRML recreation of the Temple of Zeus online.   The archaeological museum at Olympia is modern and though it is expensive (it is worth it) it is the best in the Peloponnese.  Take special note of the statue of Hermes and the baby Dionysus (picture here at the Dilos Travel site ) as well as the statue of victory.  Though I visited in May, the trees had just finished blooming, and I have heard it really is a beautiful sight.

Also, be sure and take a look at the Perseus site on the Ancient Olympics .  It is very thorough and well designed.  But if that is not enough for you, you can also try this site .  Be sure not to miss Dr. J's Illustrated Guide to Greece - Olympia , which contains some excellent photos of the site and museum.

On my first visit I stayed at the Hotel Praxitiles and I ate there one night during my second visit.  The rooms are pretty nice and go for about 5000 drx per night for a single, 6500 for a double.  There is also a youth hostel in town where you can sleep for only 1600 drx per night though I make no claims about the condition of the place.  It is in the middle of town, at the big intersection.  In 1998, we stayed at the Hotel Apollon, though I do not know the rates.  It felt like a room in the Brady Bunch's house, but we had separate bathrooms and it was overall pretty nice.  It is a large place too, and books big groups.  I also ate at O' Klaedeos, under an ivy roof and on a dirt floor, and though I only thought the food was a little above decent, some others in my group absolutely loved it.

Pirgos: The nearby town of Pirgos is the main station for the buses so you will have to pass through there a couple of times. Not very picturesque though.

Castle Chlemoutsi: The castle sits near the westernmost point of the Peloponnese and, once you go   up onto the walls, offers a spectacular view out over the Ionian Sea.  The castle can be seen from the main highway going from Pirgos to Patras if you are paying attention.  It sits high atop the only large hill in western Elis.  There is a small village named Kastro that sits right below the fortress.  The castle was built in 1220-23 by Geoffrey I Villehardouin and dubbed Clairmont.  It was refortified by the Turks after 1460.  The photo above was composed from a couple of pictures I took there in the summer of 1998, looking out over the fortress across the sea.  You can visit the Ministry of Culture's site on Chlemoutsi .  The site does not have an entrance fee, but the web site says that the castle is temporarily closed due to restorations, but during July of 1998, we had no problem going in.

Patras:  On the way to Corinth, we switched buses at Patras , once a Roman colony but now a thriving seaport (the bus might pass right through the port).  It is the largest city in the Peloponnese and its archaeological highlights include a Roman Odeion and Roman artifacts in the archaeological museum .