Skip to main content

Pythagorio

Again our trusty scooter took us on another adventure, we travelled to the town of Pythagorio.  About a 30 - 40 min ride.  Previously this township was named Tigani, however in 1955 it was renamed to honour Pythagoras. Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and mathematician most famous for his phythagoreon theroem.  He was born in 570BC in ancient Samos.
The township of Pythagorio is built upon the ruins of the old city of Samos and  some of the ruins are incorporated into the current modern buildings.
Our first stop was the

Archeological museum of Pythagorio



This museum was fabulous, every item was labelled clearly with its origins and date. Throughout the museum there were large information boards identifying the different periods of the items.



These were amazing dating to around 550BC you can see in the front medical  equipment including a pair of tweezers. So finely made and so petite.



The museum also included some ruins of ancient Samos including this stunning mosaic, and another on the floor of what would have been a bath house.  



The collection came from sites all over Samos, but mainly from the Temple of Hera and are believed to be offerings from pilgrims, the collection also included Greek and Roman statues.  There is a bust of Augustus Octavious, the one above is believed to have been a Roman prince name unknown.
After leaving the museum we headed out to

The temple of Hera (Heraion)



Founded on the site of the mythological birth of the goddess Hera, the Herion is one of Greece's most important sites.  The Temple is believed to be the first of the gigantic free-standing Ionic temples built in Greece , and was the third temple built to honour Hera on this site and is believed to have been never finished.  The column you see above it the last of the over 100 columns believed to have been there.
After leaving Hera's temple we headed to the

Eupalinus Tunnel



I know this image isn't great but if you look through the grate you can see a small tunnel deep down.  
The eupalinus tunnel is the middle section of the ancient city of Samos's aqueduct.  It was built during the 6th century BC and was one of the most significant technical achievements of antiquity.  



One of the most amazing things about this tunnel is that it was simultaneously dug from the north and south and the image above it where they met in the middle.  As you can imagine in those days there was no mechanical devices to help so this tunnel was hewn by hand by teams of stone masons.  The aqueduct itself was a smallish clay pipe which unfortunately blocked repeatedly due to the high calcium levels in the water, however they unblocked it when necessary and The aqueduct provided water to ancient Samos for over 1000 years.  During 627 and 666 AD and  the tunnels provided sanctuary to Samian's during the Persian and Arabic raids.



We then popped up and had a look at a nearby monastery, it was in the most beautiful spot and it's original church was down inside a cave.



And finally after a very late lunch we went to the Port of Pythagorio. Which is actually the harbour of ancient Samos,  and remnants of the ancient harbour still exists today.  



Above is the new city of Samos, we really didn't head down into there at all. 
 Happy to while our hours away in Kokkari, 
other than when we got the got to go see something bug.


Kalimera


Googy Girl

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Toorale homestead - Louth

We set off from Bourke  , we had stayed the night at Kidmans camp , which was a lovely spot and headed off south to start the Datling River run. For the first few hours we didn’t see any river as our first destination was  TooraleHomestead The drive in was pretty good , lots of dust and a little bit of corrigation but really quite good  We seen some wildlife including an eagle  Bit blurry as it was taken through the windscreen of the car ,  Some Emu’s and kangaroos  The homestead itself is closed to the public except during school holidays ,so we didn’t get to go in but , we knew before we arrived that was the case and I was keen to see it anyway. Sir Samuel McCaughey in partnership with his Brother John and cousin purchased Toorale, Nocoleche and Dunlop station. Acquiring 800 000 acres of land and 130 000 sheep and 80 horses.  Eventually Samuel bought his brother and cousin out. He built the homestead in 1896 as a wedding gift to his niece. The golden years for the homestead were betw

Scrappy chook quilt

So I have been keeping this one under wraps, not on purpose mainly just because I have been a very lazy blogger. A few months ago, as most of you know I had a visit to chookyblue's place, whilst there I had the pleasure to sleep under some of her gorgeous quilts. But one in particular took my fancy I just loved the scrappiness of this quilt, the lovely colours but mainly just the simple design. So when I headed up to Nundle for my retreat, I sent the lovely Kerry a photo and she assured me she could pull together some lovely fabrics and guide me, to put this lovely quilt together. When I arrived at Nundle This lovely bundle of fabrics awaited me The girls and I used the black and white feature on the iPad to determine light medium and dark fabrics I spent 3/4 of the first day creating these squares, I think I frustrated Miss Joolz because I just could not be random, I had to be organised I didn't want to get end and end up wit

Burren junction - Brewarinna

Beds on Barwon We left Newcastle at a reasonable time on Friday morning not gadgets ( my husband) usual 4am start and headed west.  We really never planned this trip out as such we vaguely decided that sitting by a river with a fire was our plan , a chance to take a deep breathe and slow down our lives for a bit. Almost 13 years ago we were extremely fortunate to do the darling river run with some wonderful friends and thought that we would love to repeat that trip and hopefully see the Darling river with water this time.  However at this stage our plans are a little up in the air with the road to Louth currently closed due to rain and some of the national parks closed for the same reason. Soo where are we heading , not sure but wherever we are heading it will be an adventure. So on day one we drove to Burren Junction where we spent our first night of our adventure at a truck stop  This is our new travelling Duo Reggie ( car) and Ruby ( van) we decided last year it was time to say good