Today I was ready to go back into Athens and see what I should have yesterday. I was feeling much better and was now keeping my food in place. We caught the train into Athens without buying for a ticket because we found that no one buys a ticket and no one is employed to check on it. No wonder the country is having huge financial troubles.
Our first port of call was Hadrian's library. Hadrian's Library was created by Roman Emperor Hadrian
in AD 132 on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens. The building followed a typical Roman Forum architectural style, having only one entrance with a propylon of Corinthian order
, a high surrounding wall with protruding niches at its long sides, an inner courtyard surrounded by columns and a decorative oblong pool in the middle.
The library was on the eastern side where rolls of papyrus
"books" were kept.
Adjoining halls were used as reading rooms, and the corners served as lecture halls. The library was seriously damaged by the Herulian
invasion of 267 and repaired by the prefect Herculius in AD 407-412.
During Byzantine
times, three churches were built at the site, the remains of which are preserved:
The photo above shows Peter checking out the inside of Hadrian's Library. This place is certainly worth a visit if you ever venture into this part of the world.
Our 2nd site today was the impressive Roman Agora of Athens which was
built in the 2nd half of the 1st Century BC. The aim was to transfer
the commercial centre of the city to it from the Ancient Agora. The
donors are recorded in an inscription carved on the epistyle blocks of
the west propylon as Julius Caesar and Augustus. Now that was an
impressive visit. The photo above is of the Roman Agora of Athens. You can just make out the Parthenon on the rock in the distance.
The reason why I took the above photo was to show not only the inside of the Roman Agora of Athens, but to show how the city and other buildings and shops now surround all these historical sites of the capital.
Our final stop for the day was the Acropolis Museum. The museum was founded to exhibit all the significant finds from the Sacred Rock and its foothills. It was inaugurated in 2009. From the top of the Parthenon one can look straight down on the site and once again is a fantastic place to look through. I was a little disappointed I couldn't take photos inside. That's forbidden to all areas accept one.
Basically inside the museum is busts of famous people dating back to 1200 BC to urns, coins and unbelieveable sculptures. We spent a good hour walking around the museum, and could have spent a lot more if I wasn't so tired.
The photo above is of the excavated earth under the glass walkway before you walk into the museum. An incredible architectural feat, to excavate and build a museum over the top showing what life was life thousands of years ago. There are sections inside the museum which are being excavated by archeologist all the time. As they say, work in progress.
The only photo I took inside the museum is the one above showing the bust of a lady. The significance of the statute is that there are 6 of them and they come from the Parthenon. The ones that are currently at the Parthenon are reproductions. 5 are held in the Acropolis Museum and the 6th is in a museum in London. That's another story.
Tonight Peter and I start the next leg of journey by boat to the island of Chios. We'll spend 3 days there and then head onto Cesme to meet up with our other cycling buddy Len.
Until tomorrow, safe riding.
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