Mycaene and Nafplio, Greece (October 2018)

Mycenae is an archaeological site located in north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece, 90 km south west of Athens and 48 km south of Corinth. It is also known to be a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It was built upon a hill rising 900 feet above the sea level and was one of the major centers of Greek civilization. It was a military stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece, Crete, the Cyclades and parts of southwest Anatolia. They ruled from about 1600 BC to 1100 BC. During this time, they competed against the Menoans based in Santorini.

We visited one of the Royal Tombs with a triangle-shaped roof entry, called Treasury of Atreus. Inside, it had a shape of dome. The spooky smell was from the bats that are living part of the year, according to the tour guide.

We passed through the famous Lion's Gate to the palace where the royal family lived and ruled.

The entire archaeological site had many ruins that were quite well built, making me wonder how skilled and sophisticated they were 3500 years ago. Wow...!

I stopped over at the museum that exhibited many artifacts excavated from the site. I was drawn into a post that exhibited the Trojan War story. Apparently, a king of Mycaene, Agamemnon, led a force to defeat the Trojans, now in Turkey, using the famous Trojan Horse. Iliad Homer wrote a novel about this, but left out the part about the Trojan Horse.

We spent time over lunch in Nafplio (or Nauplio or Nauplion), a seaport town in the Peloponnese in Greece. This town was an important seaport held under a succession of royal houses in the Middle Ages as part of the lordship of Argos and Nauplia. The town was the capital of the First Hellenic Republic and of the Kingdom of Greece. It is still the capital of the regional unit of Argolis.

The town had three forts, one up on the hill, another around the town and the other in the sea.

Due to its past prominence, the town was full of merchant shops and restaurants.

This town was under the rules of Christian crusade, the Republic of Venice and lastly the Ottoman Empire. Thus, I could find an Ottoman culture here and there.

We were supposed to visit Epidaurus, but the government employees were on strike and this place was closed. Oh well... IT is known to be the town of healing where people rested and were re-energized. A theater is so well preserved with an excellent acoustic system, the tour guide said. - Jeffrey