Category Archives: Museums

Delos, Δήλος near Mykonos

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The Aegean is seldom a bare expanse of sea. Islands float on the horizon faint and distant as outlines begin to take shape on closer inspection.

Just a short boat Journey from the island of Mykonos, you will arrive at the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological site, the island of Delos. A small rocky island in the center of the Aegean Sea. According to the legend, it was here that Apollo-Sun, god of daylight, and his twin sister Artemis-Moon, goddess of night light, were born. The island was first settled in the third millennium BC.

Terrace of the Lions built around 600 BCE by the people of Naxos. Facing east toward the sacred Lake of Delos where Greek scholars believe Apollo was born.

Apollo’s sanctuary attracted pilgrims from all over Greece and Delos was a prosperous trading port. The island bears traces of the succeeding civilizations in the Aegean world, from the 3rd millennium B.C. to the palaeochristian era.

The archaeological site is exceptionally extensive and rich and conveys the image of a great cosmopolitan Mediterranean port. The excavations in the island are among the most extensive in the Mediterranean; ongoing work takes place under the direction of the French School at Athens, and many of the artifacts found are on display at the Archaeological Museum of Delos and the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. In 1990, UNESCO inscribed Delos on the World Heritage List, citing it as the “exceptionally extensive and rich” archaeological site which” conveys the image of a great cosmopolitan Mediterranean port.

The monuments that have been excavated are a powerful statement for the magnificence of the revered island and illuminate a past civilization. The entire island is an archaeological site, which, along with the neighboring islands of Rheneia, Greater and Lesser Rematiaris, constitutes an immense archaeological site.

Mosaics and cistern, Delos

Delos Cistern with rope markings

The island had no productive capacity for food, fiber, or timber, with all necessary items imported. Limited water was exploited with an extensive cistern and aqueduct system, wells, and sanitary drains. Various regions operated agoras (markets). Delos was preserved through the centuries due to the fact that it remained uninhabited since the 7th century AD due to its remote location. Nowadays, the entire island is designated as an archaeological site.

It includes the remnants of the Terrace of the Lions, also dedicated to Apollo by the people of Naxos shortly before 600 BCE. It originally had nine to twelve squatting, snarling marble guardian lions along the Sacred Way; one is inserted over the main gate to the Venetian Arsenal. The lions create a monumental avenue comparable to Egyptian avenues of sphinxes. There is a Greek sphinx in the Delos Museum. Today only seven of the original lions remain.

Terrace of the Lions built around 600 BCE by the people of Naxos. Facing east toward the sacred Lake of Delos where Greek scholars believe Apollo was born. The originals are in the small museum on Delos.

Ferries cross the Aegean to Delos multiple times a day from Mykonos Harbor- I recommend a late afternoon ferry to avoid midday heat and then a sunset return. We have guides and options for private boats to the enchanting Delos.

Delos

Delos

Delos

Acropolis Museum, Athens

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Athens gift to visitors, the glass floored gallery houses relics from the slopes of the Acropolis. The transparent glass floor provides a view of an archeological excavation while the upward slope of the floor represents the ascent to the Acropolis. This is one of the best museums I’ve ever visited. It was designed by architect Bernard Tschumi with Michael Photiadis and inaugurated in the summer of 2009. The Museum hosts its collections across three levels, as well as in the archaeological excavation that lies at its foundations.

The Museum’s exhibition culminates on the third floor, in the glass-encased “Parthenon Gallery”. The relief sculptures of the Parthenon frieze depicting the Panathenaic procession are exhibited in continuous sequence along the perimeter of the external surface of the rectangular concrete core of the Gallery. The metopes, the marble slabs with relief representations from Greek mythology, are exhibited in between the stainless-steel columns of the Gallery, which are the same in number as the columns of the Parthenon. The colossal figures of the two pediments have been placed on pedestals on the east and west sides of the Gallery. The east pediment depicts the birth of the Goddess Athena, emerging from the head of her father Zeus, and the west pediment depicts the battle between Athena and Poseidon over the land of Attica. The third floor is the exact length of the Parthenon.

Many of the displays provide line drawings the exact size of a particular ancient and actual remnants attached of the drawing, providing a real look at a particular site as the excavations continue to reveal original pieces.

Drawing with original remnants attached.

Hermes It is believed that the God held a turtle in his hand. The lyre, the musical instrument invented by Hermes was made from the turtle shell. Second half of the 5th cent. BC (Acr. 1346)

Amid the treasures are video displays, 3 D projections and you can tour virtually the Archaic Gallery and the Parthenon Gallery. The “walk-through” feature of the project uses Google’s Street View technology. Explore physical and contextual information provided about the collection of the Acropolis Museum. The virtual images of artworks are reproduced at extremely high quality.

The Six Sisters of the Acropolis

From the NY Times article on the Six Sisters: For 2,500 years, the six sisters stood unflinching atop the Acropolis, as the fires of war blazed around them, bullets nicked their robes, and bombs scarred their curvaceous bodies. When one of them was kidnapped in the 19th century, legend had it that the other five could be heard weeping in the night. But only recently have the famed Caryatid statues, among the great divas of ancient Greece, had a chance to reveal their full glory. For three and a half years, conservators at the Acropolis Museum have been cleaning the maidens, Ionic columns in female form believed to have been sculpted by Alkamenes, a student of ancient Greece’s greatest artist, Phidias. Their initial function was to prop up a part of the Erechtheion, the sacred temple near the Parthenon that paid homage to the first kings of Athens and the Greek gods Athena and Poseidon. Today they are star attractions in the museum; the originals outside were replaced with reproductions in 1979 to keep the real maidens safe. Over the centuries, a coat of black grime came to mask their beauty. Now conservators have restored them to their original ivory glow, using a specially developed laser technology.

An excellent story on the maidens in the NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/08/arts/design/caryatid-statues-restored-are-stars-at-athens-museum.html

The Six Sisters site at the Acropolis

During the cleaning and  restoration of the Six Sisters, which was done on site, the museum recorded the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwCNfQh8Woo&feature=youtu.be

Plan to spend several hours roaming this beautifully detailed and stylish educational museum. Not far from the Acropolis, hike the Acropolis and Parthenon grounds before the heat in the morning, lunch near the museum and spend your afternoon in the museum. See post on lunch at Gods Restaurant.