Trip 2 Day 6 (October 11): Palace of Nestor, Chora Museum, Messene

Our morning started with an adventure. We got off the bus and began walking through a very muddy olive tree grove until at one point Jack stopped. We couldn't find the early Mycenean tholos tomb! It's no wonder-- the trees had low hanging branches and where it wasn't completely muddy, the grass was rather tall. Jack told us to stay put while he went to search for the tomb. While we waited, mosquitoes began devouring us. Eventually, he reappeared and together we found the tomb and he told us about its features and how it's dated.

Next we went to Pylos where Shari, Jack's wife, has been working. They took us around Nestor's Palace pointing out important features.

You can still see the paint!

The hearth, the defining feature of the throne room

The view from the palace was gorgeous.

They also took us to another tholos tomb--this one has its top reconstructed so you get a better idea of what it was like originally.

No picture of the inside could really do it justice. Our next stop was a cemetery of tombs.

We went inside them and discovered that snails and bats had made them their homes. Afterwards, we headed to the archaeological museum of Chora.

Because of the sudden news that the museum and site guards were going on strike the next day, our schedule had to change. I'd left my notes and handouts at the hotel because we weren't planning on going to Messene until later in the trip, but that's where we stopped next. First we had a climb on the fortification walls.

Messene is a big site. There's a theater,

an agora and temple to Asclepius,

and a massive stadium complex, on which I gave my report, note-less and handout-less. I think it went okay anyway.

Roman era temple at the end of the stadium

After exploring the massive site on our own, we stopped in at the Messene museum before we headed back to Pylos for the night.

model of the stadium complex