Mycenae and Epidavros

Today was another super long day. We left at 7.30 am for Mycenae, which was awesome! Its about an hour drive from our hotel in Naphplion. You enter the site through the Lion's Gate, which was also the traditional entranceway.

Grave Circle A at Mycenae.

The style of walls here are called Cyclopean walls, because the people who lived after the ancient Greeks didn't believe that men could have built walls with such large boulders, and believed that it was the work of Cyclops.

Me under the Lion's Gate in Mycenae.

View of Mycenae from the palace.

Kate and Natalie looking up the tholos tomb.

I thought it was weird that the little museum at Mycenae had a replica of the Mask of Agamemnon. We saw the original in Athens at the National Museum of Archaeology. Why would they bother making a replica? I know it was found at Mycenae, but still. Is the one at NAM even the original I wonder?

We also got to walk inside of a complete tholos tomb. I didn't even know there were any complete ones left!

A beehive tomb, also known as a tholos tomb (plural tholoi) (Greek:θόλος τάφοι, θόλοι τάφοι, "domed tombs"), is a burial structure characterized by its false dome created by the superposition of successively smaller rings of mudbricks or, more often, stones. The resulting structure resembles a beehive, hence the traditional English name.

Tholoi were used for burial in several cultures in the Mediterranean and West Asia, but in some cases they were used for different purposes such as homes (Cyprus), ritual (Syria), and even fortification (Spain, Sardinia). Although Max Mallowan used the same name for the circular houses belonging to the Neolithic culture of Tell Halaf (Iraq, Syria and Turkey), there is no relationship between them. (Wikipedia)

After we left Mycenae, we drove about another hour to The Sanctuary of Asklepios, which was an ancient healing center. I had never heard of it before, so I was a little skeptical about it's coolness level. But it turned out to be great!

Ancient medical tools. Wouldn't it be great to get brain surgery or something stitched up back then?

There was an almost perfectly preserved theatre, which had great acoustics. Bella stood at the center of the theatre floor, and we walked up to the top (it was really big too), and we could hear every word she said at a normal volume voice. We could also hear her crackle a paper and drop a penny.