Tiryns and Epidavros

We woke to a cloudy sky and during breakfast on the roof terrace the heavens opened and there was a downpour complete with rainbow. Despite some sunshine during the day it continued to threaten but not actually rain until dinner time when there was a persistent drizzle.
We started at the Nafplion museum which is a grand three story venetian building of the 17 hundreds. It contains fine objects from all over the Argolid cities and from all eras from paleolithic tools from cave dwellings around 28000bc through to Roman period. One thing it demonstrated was the strong influence of the Minoans on the Myceanians.

Then to the city of Tiryns, a Mycenian city 1700bc to 1100bc with spectular defensive walls up to 10 metres high, and generally 6 metres thick but in places over 17 metres thick. The technology of the massive blocks used in the walls with spacers to allow for earthquake and the corbelled vaulting in the galleries was very impressive!
On the way to Epidaurus we stopped to see a Myceanian bridge which used the same corbelling.
Epidaurus, though occupied earlier, is mainly a classical Greek site from 600bc to Roman. It's main fame nowadays is the large well preserved Greek theatre, with superb acoustics, still used for performances each summer. But in ancient times is was known as a centre of healing with the cult of Asklepios. The sick were given soporific drinks to make them dream and on waking were either cured or the dream was interpreted to discover how to treat them. This could include surgery or being licked by snakes or dogs! The museum has some rather alarming surgical instruments. The site is enormous and we needed Rita to make sense of all the remains.Read more