July 2nd - Day 22

Mantineia

This morning we left Nauplion and headed to Sparta! Our first stop of the morning was at Mantineia, the site of several important battles throughout Greek history including the first battle of Mantineia wihc took place in 418 BC and was the largest land battle of the Peloponnesian War in which Mantineia sided with Athens.

When we arrived at the site we were told that we could not see it by a woman who appeared to be a guard. Apparently they are digging at the site and the woman said it was too dangerous and that their were snakes. Bella argued with the woman for several minutes explaining that we had permission to see the site to no avail. Instead we had to look at the site from afar as we listened to the site presentation. Afterwards we piled back on to the bus and continued on.

Heleneion, aka Menelaion

Our next stop of the Heleneion, aka the Menelaion. We had to hike up a huge hill in the dead heat to get to the top...not so fun. At the top is the remains of a shrine dedicated to Helen and her husband Menelaos. There wasn't much left to see, so it was a quick stop. Not really worth the hike in my opinion :) Then it was back on the bus and on to Sparta.

Sparta is actually a really small city. I was expecting so much more than what I actually saw. Our hotel was located in a rather non touristy area so there wasn't much around in the way of restaurants. When we arrived at our hotel we were given a few hours to settle in and find something to eat. I just grabbed a salad at the hotel's restaurant rather than waste time looking for a place to eat. Our group met up again around 5:30 pm and headed off to the Spartan Acropolis where I gave my first site presentation. I was surprise to see that there was new work being done on the site as I did not come across this in my research. It appears that nothing has been published yet.

Theater at Sparta

There is not much left to see on the Spartan Acropolis and it makes a poor showing, especially when compared to the monumental structures on the Athenian Acropolis. The most impressive structure on the acropolis is the theater. Many of the other buildings have been back-filled to help preserve them. I will be curious to see what is uncovered in this new round of digs, although it might be years before anything is published. Apparently getting articles and dig reports published can be quite challenging here in Greece, or at least that is what we have heard from the various archaeologists we have encountered. After touring the site we were free for the evening and I went to a local tavern with some friends to get dinner. I had some traditional lamb dish (forgot the name...) and it was delicious. I then headed off in search of something sweet and found a little sweet shop where I got gelato.

Tomorrow we are on the road again as we make our way to Pylos. We are all excited about Pylos as our hotel is supposedly located right on the beach! I'm excited to get to swim in the Ionian Sea!