July 12th - Day 32

On the road again...well, sort of. Today we took a day trip to Peiraeus to visit the Peiraeus Museum and a few other sites. Although small, the museum has a really interesting collection. I especially like the collection of bronze statues that were found in a storeroom in 1959. It is believed that the statues were put there for safekeeping when Peiraeus was besieged by Sulla in 86 BC. The most impressive one was a bronze statue of Athena, which was probably my favorite of the day.


After the museum we walked a few blocks to the Arsenal of Philon that served as a storage place for all the "moveable" parts - i.e. ropes, sails, etc. - from the triremes (Athenian war ships) when they were not in use. The arsenal is currently located between two apartment buildings and was found when the buildings were being built and is now a protected archaeological site, although many of the remains are under the surrounding buildings or have been lost.


After the arsenal we headed over to the Zea Harbour Project headquarters. This venture turned out to be another "forced death march" as our leader Bella week the wrong way. We ended up walking to the wrong side of the harbor and had to double back and walk all the way around to the other side in the blazing heat at a double-timed pace because we were going to be late. By the time we all got the headquarters we were drenched in sweat and miserable. Thankfully the presentation was rather interesting. The Zea Harbour Project is a Danish run organization who runs year round excavations of the Zea and Mounichia harbors in Piraeus. The organization does both land and underwater archaeology and has been studying and excavating the Athenian ship sheds that are located in the harbors. Many of the remains are now underwater due to sea level changes. The ship sheds were built to house the triremes themselves. They had to be stored in ship sheds because the ships were made of wood and if they were left to the elements they warped and aged faster. The Zea Harbour Project is really doing some interesting work, however I'm not sure that I would want to do it. The divers have to wear special dive suits designed for diving in contaminated waters because of the pollution in the harbor. The director of the program introduced us to the work they are doing and then took us for a walk along the harbor to see some of the remains, which in some places (if the water is not too murky) you can see from above the surface.

The Olympias

When we finished there we hoped back on the bus for a short ride to another part of the harbor to see a reconstructed trireme called the Olympias. This reconstruction is largely based on historical accounts as archaeologists have not been able to locate an actual trireme. Unfortunately organic material, such as wood, does not often survive. Then it was back on the bus and back to Athens for a pizza lunch. I spent the afternoon in the library because its air conditioned working on tagging my pictures. I also did some grocery shopping and laundry.

We leave to head up to Northern Greece tomorrow for the next 8 days. I'm really excited to go to Thebes and Delphi!! Hopefully I will have better internet access than I did in the Peloponnese. This is our last major trip. When we return I will only have 4 days left in Athens. I can't believe I am in the final stretch of this trip already. Soon I will be back in the good 'ole US of A!