Day 135 Saturday We got up this morning to sunshine highlighting the snow on the distant mountains. The walk back into Delphi was lovely in the sunshine. We arrived at the archeological site half an hour later and entered. The pretty hillside-strewn ruins were in use for over 1500 years. The sanctuary was adorned with many buildings and dedications to Apollo erected by Greek City States. Worshipers purified them selves in the Castilian Spring, and bought a votive offering if they hadnt brought one with them, from the Roman Market which is where the path into the site begins. We walked along the sacred way past the roman market towards the Temple of Apollo. We passed several treasuries that would have been filled with the spoils of war. The Athenien Treasury was reconstructed in the early 1900s, it was built to commemorate the Atheniens victory against the Persians at the battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The Omphalos ( navel stone) marking the centre of the world is still where the archeologists found it. As we climbed towards the Temple we passed the extraordinary Polygonal Wall, it comprises interlocking polygon rocks, it features around 800 inscriptions that relate to the emancipation of slaves. Finally we arrived at the Temple of Apollo. This is the most sacred building in the sanctuary, the remains are from the third temple constructed on this site (4th C. BC), a large ramp leads to its interior from where Pythia delivered her pronouncements which were interpreted by the priests. Behind the Temple is the Theatre that can seat 5000, the Pythian Games held in Delphi every four years were not just about athletics it also included music and drama (Apollo is the god of music). We retraced our steps and had coffee at the cafe, it was so hot in the sunshine that we were perspiring as we sat and drank it, the cafe has around 10 resident cats, one decided to curl up on my coat and go to sleep! We walked down the path past where the spring would have been on the hillside, to the Gymnasium, it wasnt open today, walking a little further down hill is the Temple of Athena, just ruins here and a few reconstructed columns. We return to Dream Catcher for a late lunch, we sat out enjoying the warm weather watching paragliders soaring above us. The rest of the afternoon we just pottered about doing a few jobs. It went quite cold in the evening so we put some heating on and watched some DVDs.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 17:00:12 +0000
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