Continued from yesterday”¦ Once we had gone through the museum, we headed to another well preserved building, the Church of the Holy Apostles. It was built in the 11th century over the ruins of a 2nd century AD building called the Nymphaion. We have no clue what kind of building the Nymhaion could have possibly been, but the name is certainly intriguing. The church was restored in the 1950’s. The church looks pretty similar on the outside to the other churches around Greece we have seen so far. The inside is only partially restored. They found some of the original wall paintings, so the walls are mostly white with big chunks of ornate, but faded, art splashed here and there on the walls. There isn’t much in there by way of furniture, either.

We made our way across the complex over to the last of the intact buildings, the Temple of Hephaistos, on the northwest side of the grounds. We walked through a series of foundations on our way. In the photo, you can see the temple in the background and some of the foundations in the foreground. According to the plan of the ancient city, the ones pictured are different rooms within the same building, the South Stoa II. The ancient Greeks must have liked to shop as much as the modern Greeks do. We also passed by several more buildings, most with odd names like Helaia and Tholos, so we have no clue what the buildings were used for. The area around the foundations is lined with all kinds of pieces of blocks and columns and statues, probably pieces they hope to find a fit for as they keep digging. In a lot of ways, archeology is like a giant 3D jigsaw puzzle, except instead of opening a box, you have to dig the pieces up.

The temple is devoted to the god of metal working, Hephaistos, and the goddess of pottery and crafts, Athena Ergane. It was built in 460 BC, and at the time there were several pottery and metal shops near the temple. It is one of the best preserved buildings of its type in the world. It is pretty small for a temple of its day, measuring only 13.7 meters by 31.78 meters. It was constantly in use in one form or another until 1930, going from a pagan temple to a Christian church to a museum. Since you could see the front from the last photo, here is a picture of the side, to help give you a sense of size and detail. If you really look carefully, you can see the discs of the columns are not properly lined up anymore, and you can see carved design on the metopes (the rectangular piece of façade between the top of the columns and the roofline). At the front and back of the building, there are intricate friezes (carvings) depicting battle scenes on the pediments (the triangular piece of façade between the tops of the columns and the roof line). You are not allowed to go inside.

The temple is at the top of a small hill, and from the front of the temple you get a great view of the entire Agora, as well as the Acropolis above. In this picture, the city of Athens is in the background, the Stoa of Attalos is in the middle, and in the foreground is the foundation of another building. The sign for this building was unclear. It is either the foundation of a theater, a gymnasium or a palace. You can decide for yourself which kind of building it was.

By the time we were done at the Agora, we had decided we had our fill of ruins and exercise for the day and that we needed to relax. On the way back to the hotel, we walked past the Library of Hadrian, built by Hadrian in 132 AD, and the Roman Agora. Our tickets were good to get in to them, but we just didn’t feel like it. We walked along the perimeter and got a couple shots from the distance. At one of the corners of the site is an old mosque, built on top of the ruins of the library. This shot shows part of the front of the library entrance, as well as the mosque. From the other side of the mosque, you can see the ancient ruins under the more modern building.

Here are a couple more shots, but they don’t do the site justice. It is much larger than it looks in the photos, and believe us, it was a long walk past it. It is definitely not anywhere close to being as reconstructed as the Ancient Agora is.

Christi hadn’t been feeling very good all day yesterday, nor was she feeling good today. She had thought her allergies were bothering her despite abundant amounts of allergy medication, but by the evening it was clear that she had another sinus infection. Grrr. Severe allergies and sinus infections were pretty common for her back in Southern California. Her allergies didn’t bother her at all in the South Pacific, and she only had minor issues with allergies in Asia and Egypt. But as soon as we pulled into Greece, where the foliage is the much same as in Southern California, all her allergy issues from home came back with a vengeance. Needless to say, between Christi’s illness and the very early flight we had tomorrow, we had a quiet evening and went to bed early.