Recent excavations conducted by the 16th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities have brought to light part of the Archaic walls as well as the Classical fortification of the city, preserved in very good condition. On the low ridge between the two hills of the peninsula stands the Agora, political and commercial center of the city. It is dominated by a long, rectangular portico (classical stoa), an edifice in which the people of Stageira assembled for public debate. A complex of public storerooms and shops is situated to the east of the portico, in front of a paved road.

On the top of the north hill part of a temple dating from the 6th c. B.C. came to light under the byzantine enclosure which was built there about the 10th c. A.D. On the steep north-east side of the hill are the ruins of an archaic sanctuary and a series of storerooms and workshops, mainly of the Early Hellenistic period, built against the inner side of the Late Classical fortification.

The acropolis of Stageira occupies the large plateau on the summit of the south hill. The slopes of the hill are protected by the south section of the fortification through which runs the main water-supply conduit of the city.

Parts of houses have been discovered over the entire area of the ancient city. The steep terrain indicated the creation of stepped terraces on which building blocks or individual houses were erected.

Administrative Information

Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Halkidiki and Agion Oros
Olympiada, Τ.Κ. 57014, Olympiada, Prefecture of Chalkidiki (Prefecture of Halkidiki)
Telephone: +302371022060, +302310285163
Fax: +302310251892
Email: efachagor@culture.gr

Tickets: Free access

Access to the Archaeological Site: By car or bus to the community of Olympiada.

Source: http://odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Halkidiki and Agion Oros

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The regular shape (square) of the city was no doubt dictated by the flat plain in which it stands, but it is quite likely that, as has been suggested, both the town-plan and the fortifications of Dion called upon the experience gained by the city-builders of the time from the new cities founded by Alexander and his successors in the lands of Asia.

In the east sector of the archaeological site of Dion has been discovered the villa of Dionysus, which takes its name from the large mosaic depicting the god that covers the floor of the banqueting room. The sanctuaries of the gods, two theatres (one Greek and one Roman) and the stadium have been discovered outside the city walls. Amongst the gods worshipped at Dion, the most important was Olympian Zeus, after whom the city was named (the genitive of “Zeus” being Dios). In the god’s precinct have been found stone stelae bearing inscriptions relating to treaties of alliance, the settlement of border disputes, parts of official decrees, etc. The sanctuary of Demeter, just outside the walls and the gate at the end of the main street of the city, is the earliest Macedonian sanctuary known to date. It had an uninterrupted life from the late 6th c. B.C. to the early 4th c. A.D. To the east of the sanctuary of Demeter has been discovered a sanctuary devoted to the cult of the Egyptian gods Sarapis, Isis and Anubis. There is a small temple of Aphrodite Hypolympidia (Aphrodite worshipped below Mount Olympus) in this same sanctuary.

The Hellenistic theatre of Dion, which lies outside the walls, was built in the reign of Philip V (221-179 B.C.). The Roman theatre, dating from the 2nd c. A.D., has been identified south-east of the Hellenistic structure. The cemetery of Dion extents mainly to the south and east of the city. The funerary monuments date from the 5th c. B.C. to the 5th c. A.D. During Early Christian times the city contracted and the central area was occupied by an Early Christian Basilica dating from the late 4th c. A.D. Dion appears to have been abandoned during the 5th c. A.D. as a result of natural disasters (earthquakes, floods), its inhabitants moving to safer areas in the foothills of Mount Olympus.

Administrative Information:

Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Pieria
Τ.Κ. 60100, Dion, Pieria (Prefecture of Pieria)
Telephone: +302351053484
Email: efapie@culture.gr

Tickets: Full: €8, Reduced: €4

Access: By road, 17 km south of Katerini

Source: http://odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Pieria

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The hollow of the Theater is based on an embankment, supported by a strong semicircular ascent, the western part of which is kept in good condition.The ascent, built of massive stone blocks, has the same shape as the fortifications, gates and towers of the city, and every 20 meters or so it brought impressive pointed gates with internal staircases, which led to the upper cornice.From there, descending stairwells started, which ended in the orchestra, horizon and the stands of the building. Large stone external staircase in the NW curve of the ascent leads to the upper cornice emphasizing the architectural peculiarities of the building.

In the years of the Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius (1st century AD) the stage and the foreground were completely replaced. New repairs and modifications were made with the financial sponsorship of the powerful Messinian family of Saithida, around the middle of the 2nd c. A.D.

The Roman scene is quite well preserved. The facade was multi-storey (at least three-storey) with doors, arches and niches. White and multicolored marble columns made of marble and granite were used for this purpose.The colonnade of the lower row was crowned by Corinthian capitals, while the upper ones had Ionian and Egyptian capitals. These elements of the Theater of Messene foreshadow the colossal theaters and amphitheaters of Roman times.The ground floor of the tent consists of a central semicircular niche, and two rectangles, right and left. In each niche there were two pedestals for the foundation of a total of six marble statues of benefactors and other persons. Statues were placed in the smaller niches of the upper floors of the stage, while statues of spiritual men and benefactors were erected around the orchestra of the building.

The Ancient Theater of Messene seems to have been abandoned already at the end of the 3rd to the beginning of the 4th c. A.D. This is inferred from the use of bricks of the ascent of the hollow in the last construction phase of the Arsinoe Fountain, which dates back to the time of Diocletian (284-305 AD).

Administrative Information:

Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Messinia

Mauromati-Ithomis, Mauromati (Prefecture of Messinia)
Telephone: +30 27240 51201
Email: efames@culture.gr

Tickets:
Full: €10, Reduced: €5
Archaeological Site and Museum of Ancient Messene

Amenities for the physically challenged:
WC for people with special needs at the archaeological site.

Access:
By road from Athens via Corinth-Tripoli-Kalamata highway, or via Corinth-Patras-Pyrgos-Kyparissia-Meligala highway. A route by car is required from Olympia about an hour.

Source: www.odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Messinia

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Administrative Information:

Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Lakonia
Τ.Κ. 23100, Sparti (Prefecture of Lakonia)
Telephone: +30 27310 28575
Fax: +30 27310 21516
Email: efalak@culture.gr

Tickets:
Free access

Open:
08:00-20:00

Source: www.odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Lakonia

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The Classical temple was raised on bedrock, on a specially built terrace. Like several other temples in Arcadia, it is orientated east-west instead of the usual north-south, possibly because of local tradition. The building is of local grey limestone, with parts of the roof, the capitals of the cella and the sculptural decoration being of marble. This is the only known temple of antiquity to combine three architectural orders. It is Doric, peripteral, distyle in antis, with pronaos, cella, adyton and opisthodomos. The temple has six columns on the short sides and fifteen on the long sides, instead of the period’s usual ratio of 6:13, which gave it the characteristic elongated shape of Archaic temples. Inside the cella, on either side was a series of five Ionic half-columns engaged in buttresses, which projected from the sidewalls dividing the space into niches. The last pair of half-columns divided the cella diagonally, not at right angles like the others. Between them stood a single column. Its capital, recorded in the drawings of the first modern travellers, is the earliest known example of a Corinthian capital in the history of Greek architecture (fragments of the capital are now in the National Archaeological Museum). According to one theory this column was in fact an aniconic representation of the deity in accordance with the earliest Arcadian traditions, while another theory suggests that the fifth pair of half-columns, which stood on either side of this one, was also Corinthian. The cult statue of Apollo was inside the adyton, which was located behind the Corinthian column. A door on the east wall led to the pteron, on the outside. The two-sloped roof had marble tiles of Corinthian type.

A Doric frieze of undecorated metopes and triglyphs ran along the outer fa?ades. Only the inner metopes of the short sides were decorated: those on the pronaos had depictions of Apollo’s return to Olympus and those on the opisthodomos contained the rapture of the daughters of the Messenian king Leukippos by the Dioskouroi. The pediments may have been undecorated. The temple’s main decorative feature was the marble Ionic frieze supported by the Ionic half-columns of the cella. This frieze was thirty-one metres long and consisted of twenty-three marble slabs, of which twelve depicted battles between Greeks and Amazons and the remaining eleven showed battles between Lapiths and Centaurs. The frieze was unearthed by foreign antiquaries in 1812 and sold to the British Museum in 1815. It may have been the work of Paionios, who also executed the celebrated statue of Nike at Olympia.

Administrative Information:

Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Ilia
Τ.Κ. 27061, Figaleia (Prefecture of Ilia)
Telephone: +302626022275

Open:
For security reasons the Temple of Apollo Epikourios will remain closed to the public when extreme weather conditions are forecast in the area (wind speeds exceeding 6 Beaufort and wind gusts reaching 70 km/h.) Please contact the ticket office to confirm the operation of the site on the phone +302626022275.

Access:
The area can be reached only by road from Andritsaina, where a road of about 12 km leads to the temple. Another access is from Nea Figalia, and from E.O. Pyrgos-Kalamata, via Dorio. Access is only by private cars and tourist buses. There is no transportation.

Source: www.odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Ilia

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The temple is a Doric, peripteral hexastyle with twelve columns on the flanks. All the shafts are monolithic and fluted, except for three columns on the north side, which are built up of drums. The temple, which stands on a three-stepped crepis, presents the usual arrangement of pronaos, cella and opisthodomos. Both the pronaos and the opisthodomos are distyle in antis, while the cella is divided longitudinally by two rows of five columns each. A ramp of carefully cut stone rises to the crepis on the east side of the temple. The columns, cella walls and entablature were of local porous limestone, which was plastered and painted over. Traces of paint are still visible on the entablature. The two-sloped roof had terracotta roof tiles of the Corinthian type and a single row of marble tiles with palmette-shaped antefixes along the edges. The central, palmette-shaped acroterion, which was framed by two korai, and the four sphinxes on the corners of the roof were also of marble. The pedimental sculptures and the roof acroteria were of Parian marble and painted. The pediments depicted two mythical combats before Troy in the presence of Athena; heroes from Aegina participated in both. The east pediment showed the early expedition of Herakles against the Trojan king, Laomedon, in which Telamon, son of Aiakos, took part. The west pediment showed the later expedition by Agamemnon against Priam, in which three descendants of Aiakos, Ajax, Teukros and Achilles, participated. The west pediment reflects the aesthetics of the sixth century BC, while the east pediment, which is more animated and less stylized, dates to the early fifth century BC.

Administrative Information:

Ephorate of Antiquities of Pireus and Islands
Aphaia, Aigina (Prefecture of Attiki)
Telephone: +30 22970 32398
Fax: +30 22970 32398
Email: efapn@culture.gr

Tickets:
Full: €6, Reduced: €3

Amenities for the physically challenged:
Leaflet in Braille

Access:
Boat or Flying Dolphin from the port of Piraeus to the port of Aigina and then local bus to Aphaia.

Source: http://odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of Pireus and Islands

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Source: www.odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of Samos – Ikaria

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The fortress and sanctuaries belonged to the deme of Sounion, formed through the state reorganization by Kleisthenes in 510 BC. The deme belonged to the tribe of Leontis and extended in the area between Lavrion, Megala Pefka, Kamariza (Agios Konstantinos) and the cape. The settlement in the fortress probably forms the center of the deme, of which more remains are also known. In the surroundings of the fortress, a settlement is located over the port and a cemetery of the classical period on the shore where the church of Saint Peter is, as well as part of a settlement of roman times west of the church.

Inside the fortress, the summit is occupied by the sanctuary of Poseidon. Entering through the gate at the NW part of the fortification wall, one ascended through the settlement which covered the slopes to reach the monumental gateway of the sanctuary. Nowadays, the visitor enters the fortress crossing over the east part of the wall. In the sandy cove north of the cape the port was located. On the rocky shore at the entrance of the inlet, ship sheds were cut out for warships to be hauled

Homer testifies to the sacredness of the area at least from the 8th century BC. In the archaic period (7th- 6th cent. BC) the sanctuary was thriving, though lacking monumental arrangement. Plenty of votive objects were found buried in depositors, gathered there following the destruction of the sanctuary by the Persians in 480 BC. At the end of the archaic period construction of a monumental temple of limestone began, which was destroyed by the Persians before being completed. The temple was rebuilt on the foundations of the previous one around 444-440 BC. In the classical and hellenistic times (5th – 2nd cent. BC) the sanctuary was frequently visited. A grand four-yearly festival was organized, officials sailing there in a sacred ship, as in the sanctuary on Delos island. With the decline of Greek religion the sanctuary was abandoned and the temple gradually decayed

The sacred precinct of Poseidon, occupying the highest area in the fortress, is defined by a wall except for its south precipitous side, on a surface of around 5000 m2. It was entered through a monumental gateway at the NE. The most important building is the temple of Poseidon, in the south part, while the NW part is occupied by the big north portico and the smaller west one.

The doric temple seen today was built of local marble from the Agrileza quarries on top of the destroyed archaic temple. Palmette antefixes crowned the gable roof. At least the east pediment (on the entrance side) was decorated with statues. On the same side a relief frieze was running on the top of the interior of the colonnade. On the Parian marble frieze slabs scenes of the Centaur battle and the deeds of Theseus are sculpted, an allegory for the victory of the Greeks led by the Athenians against the Persians and for the superiority of the Athenian democracy over the eastern monarchy. The temple is attributed to the same architect with the ones of Hephaistos (?Theseion?) at the Athenian agora, Ares at Akharnes and Nemesis at Ramnous.

Administrative Information:

Ephorate of Antiquities of the Eastern Attiki
Sounio (Prefecture of Attiki)
Telephone: +30 22920 39363

Tickets:
Full: €10, Reduced: €5

Open:
9:30 until sunset
Last entry: 20 minutes before sunset time

Source: www.odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Eastern Attiki

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The nekromanteion of Acheron was built on a hilltop specially flattened for this purpose. A rectangular enclosure in polygonal masonry, entered from the north, surrounds a square building, the main temple, which two parallel walls divide into a central hall and two side aisles. Underneath the central hall is a rock-hewn subterranean room, the dark palace of Persephone and Hades, whose ceiling was supported by fifteen poros arches. Archaeological evidence dates the temple to the early Hellenistic period (late fourth-third century BC). A group of rooms and warehouses surrounding a central court was added to the original building in the late third century BC, during a second building phase. The new annex was used for lodging priests and visitors.

Architecturaly the building resembles a mausoleum, or grandiose funerary monument, like those built for various monarchs in Asia Minor and the East in the late fifth century BC (e.g. the monument of Mausolus at Alikarnassus). Made of excellent polygonal masonry, it had iron-clad gates and was divided internally into corridors, adapted to the chthonic cults and their rituals. During these rituals, the followers entered a dark hallway and were led by the priest to the appropriate preparation chambers, where they fasted and underwent catharsis, before performing a sacrifice. They then entered a large dark hall, where they met the souls of the dead.

Hundreds of vases containing offerings, lamps, and smaller vases, often decorated in the Athenian West Slope style, were discovered during excavations. Millstones, sea-shells, farming and construction tools, and figurines of Persephone and Cerberus were stored in the warehouses.

Administrative Information:

Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Preveza
Mesopotamos, Preveza (Prefecture of Preveza)
Telephone: +302684041206, +302682089890
Fax: +302684041206, +302682089891
Email: efapre@culture.gr

Tickets:
Full: €6, Reduced: €3
Its for Nekromanteion of Acheron and archaeological site of Ephyra

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Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Preveza

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Archaeological evidence suggests that the area was occupied since the Bronze Age. The earliest cult was probably dedicated to the Earth goddess or to another female deity related to fertility. The cult of Zeus, brought to Dodoni by the Selloi, a tribe from Thesprotia, soon became the main cult. Zeus Naios was worshipped together with Dioni, his wife, according to local tradition. Later, the cult of Aphrodite, their daughter, was also introduced, together with that of Themis. Dioni and Themis were worshipped as ‘naian gods’ – that is, gods who shared the same house (synoicous) and temple (synnaioi) as Zeus.

Originally the sanctuary was outdoors, and various ceremonies were performed around the sacred tree (sacred oak or Fagus), in which the divine couple, Zeus and Dioni, resided. Offerings, such as bronze tripods, statuettes, jewelry, and weapons, from southern Greece, reached the sanctuary as early as the eighth century BC, indicating that settlers from Greek cities were colonizing the shores of Epirus. Dodona, however, did not witness the intense building activity of other famous sanctuaries, such as Delphi, Olympia, and Delos, during this period, probably because it was isolated from the rest of Greece and far from all major commercial routes. The sanctuary remained outdoors, and the sacred area of the tree was defined by a kind of enclosure formed by bronze cauldrons.

The first signs of building activity date to the early fourth century BC, when the first small temple of Zeus and three Ionic stoas were erected. The enclosure of the Dodona acropolis, further north, dates to the same period. The sanctuary thrived in the third century BC under King Pyrrhus (297-272 BC), who gave it its monumental character. The rest of the temples and the sanctuary’s most impressive buildings, including the theatre, the bouleuterion, the prytaneum, and the stadium, which hosted the Naian Games held in honor of Zeus, were all erected during this period. The sanctuary was destroyed by the Aetolians in 219 BC, but was soon reconstructed and functioned again until 167 BC when it was destroyed by the Romans. It suffered again in 88 BC under Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus, and his Thracian warriors. The sanctuary was reestablished in the Roman period, although with a different character, and its theatre was converted into an arena, which Emperor Hadrian visited around 132 AD. The oracle and festivities in honor of Zeus continued to attract worshipers until the fourth century BC. Christianity, however, gradually replaced the old religion, Christian basilicas were erected inside the sacred precinct, and the sacred oak was cut down

Administrative Information:
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Ioannina
Τ.Κ. 45500, Dodoni (Prefecture of Ioanina)
Telephone: +30 26510 82287
Fax: 2651001052
Email: efaioa@culture.gr

Tickets:
Special ticket package: Full: €8, Reduced: €4
Valid for: Archaeological Museum of Ioannina, Byzantine Museum of Ioannina, Dodonι

Source: www.odysseus.culture.gr
Ephorate of Antiquities of the Prefecture of Ioannina

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