July 10th - Day 30

Tomb of Athenians

Today was another day trip, this time to Marathon and Rhamnous. First stop of the day was at the site of the Marathon battle. It was a very quick stop as there is not much to see at the actual site, just a model of the area and the Tomb of the Athenians, where the 192 Athenians who died in the Battle of Marathon are buried.

Next it was off to the Museum where we got to see the remains of the "trophy" erected by the Athenians to celebrate their victory. The guards were also kind enough to unlock one of the tombs for us to look at. The tomb we saw was from the Middle Helladic period, about 2000 to 1300 BC. There are several tombs dating from various periods located around the museum. We walked over to see the Plataeans tomb where the Plataeans who died in the Battle of Marathon are said to be buried. We couldn't go inside because it was locked, but it was a mound grave and looked similar to the Tomb of the Athenians, only smaller.

Temple of Nemsis

Then it was on to Rhamnous, the site of one of the most well preserved ancient Attic demes. We originally thought that we were not going to be able to get into the site. Many of the sites do not open or close early because they do not have enough guards due to the economic situation in Greece. We lucked out and the guard unlocked the site so that we could see it. First stop on the site was at the Temple of Nemesis. After that it we hiked (another forced death march!) to the site of the fortified settlement. The hike would not have been so bad had it not be 97 degrees out. It was so hot! The site was really cool and there was a lot to see because it was so well preserved.

Rhamnous

We stopped at a nearby beach for lunch and a swim break before heading back to Athens. We got back around 5:30 pm and I completely crashed and took a nap, as I was drained from spending the majority of the day out in the blistering sun.

Tomorrow is another museum day, which means air conditioning!! We are going to the Byzantine and Christian Museum in the morning and then heading back the National Archaeological Museum to tour the Roman sculpture galleries.