Peloponnese Mania: Corinth and Laconia

Before I get into the inevitable snide commentary, and trust me, there's an abundant supply of that, I thought I might show pictures of the legitimate (a term I use loosely) archeological sites that we saw in and around the Pelopponese. For those of you who have no idea where the Pelopponese penninsula is located (i.e. all of you, don't lie), here's a handy map I stole off of Google Images:






God Bless the Internet

This is a picture of the ancient acropolis of Corinth, which is ever-so-helpfully not shown on the map above. (What am I supposed to do, spoon feed you and tuck you into bed?) We stopped there the first day we had our rental car, and then continued down to Monemvasia. Spring has arrived in Greece, so everything is very green, which is unusual for Greece, and the wildflowers are out in full force. Corinth is located on an extremely thin strip of land between the Saronic and Corinthian (obviously a huge strategic post, hence its long history), but now it's pretty industrial. And, therefore, kind of gross.

At left, a view of Mount Taygetus from the ancient city of Corinth. Nice smog, huh? Most of it comes from dirty, dirty Athens.

After Corinth, we drove down to Laconia, into the prettier and wayyyyy more remote part of our trip. Monemvasia sits on one big rock jutting out of the sea, and the city itself perches right on the eastern hillside. It's a Byzantine town, and if you're super-nerdy, feel free to click here for historical background and more photos. It's actually one of my favorite places I've visited in Greece thus far--it's surrounded by mountains that go right to the sea, and the old town is really cool with narrow streets and Byzantine-era houses that are converted into hotels.

The view from our hotel window.

Above the main town, there's a Frankish castle and this church, Agia Something or Other. I don't remember the real name. Sorry.

Ancient Acropolis of Epidavros. One of two ancient sites we daytripped to from Monemvasia, this one was definitely cooler. There were tons of pottery sherds at the base of the site (evident because some dude had just plowed a field for planting). Eph and I looked for the Next Big Thing in Classics. No luck. We did, however, see the inscription below, which is ancient history. HAH. Get it?

You can see and, of course, read this piece of humanity's history, right? There was a fence. Eph jumped it. Then he realized the fence had a door for free and easy access, but by then I was already walking away with the camera. Time and tide wait for no Classicist.

I mentioned above that there were superlative values given to the sites we visited around Monemvasia, and here you can see why. This is the ancient acropolis of Zarax, which I have offically renamed Crapax. There it is--wait--no--yeah--nope!, there's nothing there. According to the Blue Guide (guidebook for archaeologists), the "ruins of Zarax dominate the modern town." Ok, there are so many reasons why the previous sentence is totally and completely false. 1) WHAT RUINS OF ZARAX?! We stumbled around over rubble walls and through huge patches of stinging nettle to find this place, and...came up short. 2) How can ruins "dominate" if you can't find them? 3) I would hardly call the loose assemblage of abandoned buildings and ramshackle houses a "town," let alone a "modern town."

All right, I'm done with this leg. The Mani is next, folks. I know you wait with baited breath.