Pegasus Crossing

Today we awoke to find that Greece is much more beautiful by day. Our hotel is right on the Aegean sea, and the view is spectacular. We had a lovely Greek breakfast cooked by Anastasia, the lady who owns the hotel. Then we headed off to see Acrocorinth, which is about a 15 minute drive from Loutro Elenis, where we're staying. The site is on top of a mountain, which we drove up about 80% of and walked the rest. It was built to be a fortress in case of invasion (which happened often), and was occupied from the bronze age until about the Greek war of Independence. It was particularly important because of its location near the isthmus, which connects North and South Greece. You can see for miles in both directions when you're at the top, which makes it militarily ideal.

The front gates at Acrocorinth

A view from the top of the mountain

Because it was occupied for so long by so many different people, there are a ton of different structures here, plenty that haven't even been excavated yet. They are currently in the process of excavating the two towers that flank the gates. We were surprised to see the large pile of material which they removed and aren't further cataloging. It was strange to see pieces of pottery from thousands of years ago lying in the discard pile. Not to mention a surprising amount of bones (none human, no worries). I understand that they have a lot of material, and that it would take forever to go through it all, but it just seems like such a waste.

Glazed pottery sherd in the discard pile

We climbed in just about every nook and cranny we could find. There were a few different cisterns on the mountain, which are underground natural reservoirs of water. In order to get a better look at one of the cisterns, we climbed down a somewhat questionable looking shaft. Later we learned that cistern was supposedly the first place Pegasus touched the ground with his hooves when he came to earth. Needless to say, I was pretty geeked. I'm a pretty big fan of all mythological horses. 

The cistern which was supposedly the first place Pegasus touched the earth

Eventually we made it to the top of the mountain, where we saw the ruins of the temple to Aphrodite, where they actually used to practice ritualized prostitution. The hike was exhausting, but the views were worth it. 

The crew posing epically on the top of the mountain

Next, we hit up one of the old mosques, which was still in pretty sound condition. Almost all of it's corbeled dome roof was still intact, which was very cool to see. After that we visited an old church which is still in use today, and decided to call it a day.

Gates leading to the inside of the Mosque

Candle holder inside the small church

After an only somewhat treacherous descent, we headed into the town of Corinth for late  lunch. We ate at Jon's friend Nico's restaurant, and had gyros, greek salad, and watermelon. At the restaurant, we sat on a verandah that overlooked the site of ancient Corinth, which I'm excited to go back and explore later. Then we went to see the canal that divides North and South Greece and connects the two seas at the isthmus. It was impressive, but slightly terrifying. We also spent a good amount of time watching a bridge that lowered into the water so boats could drive over it. 

The canal at the isthmus

Bridge in canal lowered for boat to drive across

In the evening, we went to our first Greek supermarket and got pizza at a local restaurant where we were unsure of the protocol...and realized we should probably learn at least a few words in Greek at some point. Tomorrow we are headed to Athens on the 6:30 am train, so I'm sure I'll have plenty to talk about then.