Italy and Greece

We have six nights in Thessaloniki. On the way here we stopped at Vergina. This is the Royal burial cluster of Philip II. Phillip was the father of Alexander the Great and was sent to the afterlife with more pomp and ceremony than had ever been seen. Phillip and his last wife were washed and dressed in lavish clothes and jewellery and placed on the funeral pyre. The beds they were placed on were ornate and encrusted with gems. After the cremation the bones were collected and placed in gold boxes and buried in a tomb with all their finery.

The main room of Phillips tomb included a marble chest, and in it was the Golden Larnax made of 24-carat gold and weighing 11 kilograms (24 lb), embossed with the Vergina Sun symbol. Inside the golden larnax the bones of the dead were found and a golden wreath of 313 oak leaves and 68 acorns, weighing 717 grams (25.3 oz). In the room were also found the golden and ivory panoply of the dead, the richly carved burial bed on which he was laid and later burned and exquisite silver utensils for the funeral feast. Other magnificent items include several gold-adorned suits of armour, weapons, and bronze funeral utensils.

The gold larnax found inside the intact stone sarcophagus. The pieces that have survived the tomb robbers are absolutely amazing. The whole museum is buried under ground to replicate the tumulus, or burial mounds that covered the tombs on 300BC.Read more