25th September - Delphi

This morning when we woke we found we had a balcony. This vista was amazing, looking out over the ancient olive groves. Unfortunately the pictures I took do not do it justice as I took them about 7am. The whole area is a UNESCO world heritage site due not only to the ancient archaeological site of Delphi but also the olive grove.

View from our balcony with the Olive groves in the centre behind the houses.

After breakfast and checking out we set off to visit the popular archaeological site of Delphi, also known as “the navel of the world”. It constitutes the point where the most important religious centre of antiquity was founded and flourished. We stopped at the Temple and tholos of Athena Pronaia first. As with many of the ancient sites part of the Tholos has been re-erected and the missing pieces have been filled. The temple is still in pieces.

Tholos of Athena

Tholos of Athena

Temple of Athena from above

Next stop was the Kastalia Spring to taste the water from the new spring. The old one is rather dry now.

Ancient Kastalian Spring

David drinking from the same spring as the Oracle of Delphi once did

Unfortunately no lotto numbers have come to mind yet. Maybe we have to sleep on it!

Then it was on to the Treasury of Athenians, the Temple of Apollo, the Sacred Way, the Ancient Stadium of Delphi and the Ancient Theater, as well as the Archaeological Museum of Delphi. We had an hour at the archaeological site and half an hour at the museum (they gave us an hour but we didn’t need that long).

The navel of the earth replica

Treasury of the Athenians

The tripod of the Plataeans ( 3 serpents, the top is near hippodrome in Istanbul)

The temple of Apollo

Ancient theatre of Delphi

The Stadium of Delphi

The parts left of the horse from charioteer 

The charioteer of Delphi, Heniokhos found in 1896

After visiting the archaeological site and museum we headed for a local campground ⛺️! The cousins running the site are lucky that their parents set it up before the UNESCO restrictions came in. One of their ancestors was granted 5000 olive trees and they produce olives and olive oil. We had a tasting and lunch at the site with its spectacular view over the olive groves. It is one of the smoothest olive oils I have ever tasted and the olives were lovely too.


After lunch we headed for our overnight stop at Meteora stopping on the way to visit the site of the battlefield of Thermopylae where the Persian empire fought against the alliance of Greek city states under Sparta in 480 BC. They are developing the site with new monuments to the Spartans and the 700 Thespiaens along with an information centre. The surrounding hills have apparently not changed since the battle.
Top of the fortified hill of Kolonos

Monument to the 700 Thespiaens 

Monument to the Spartans
We arrived at our hotel in Meteora at around 5pm with enough time to enjoy the view of the huge monoliths with their monasteries on top before it got dark. Another amazing day in Greece.







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