Thursday, January 31, 2008
Monolithos - Rhodes, Greece
Castle of Monolithos. It is one of the four more powerfull fortresses of Rhodes. It is 237m high and has a magnificent view to the sea. It was built at about 1476 By the great magister D' Aubusson on top of the ruins of a Byzantine castle. This castle was never conquered.
August 2007
Ακρόπολη Λίνδου - Ρόδος / Lindos Acropolis - Rhodes Greece
Η ακρόπολη της Λίνδου βρίσκεται στην κορυφή ενός κατακόρυφου βράχου που αρχίζει αμέσως από τη θάλασσα, ύψους 116 μ. Στη στενή νότια άκρη της ακροπόλεως, δίπλα στον γκρεμό, υπάρχει ο ναός της Αθηνάς Λινδίας.
dusk
Pedestrian street at Karpenisi, a town at 1200 metres altitude on the mountain Timfristos, Central Greece. Sun setting behind the mountain
balcony
An old lady watching the people passing by in the central pedestrian street below the Acropolis. Thission, Athens, Greece.
#91 on Explore, 11-6-07
Στον φίλο μου....
... τον Ισίδωρο..... Γιατί τα ηλιοβασιλέματα στα νησιά δεν τα αφήνει κανείς πίσω του εύκολα.....
Corfu - Entrance to the Old Fortress
The Old Fortress stands over the Esplanade (Spianada Square) and is linked to the town by a fixed iron bridge 60 meters in length. This bridge used to be wooden and was drawn up to isolate the fortress for greater safety.
The first fortifications of the Old Fortress were started about the 6th century AD after the destruction of the ancient city of Corcyra by the Goths, who had forced the population to abandon the ancient city and to settle on the rocky promontory with its two peaks. The Byzantines fortified one of the two peaks, the one that in Venetian times was named 'Castel Vecchio' or 'Castel a Mare'. Later the Venetians fortified the other, peak called 'Castel Nuovo' or 'Castel a Terra'. Between the 6th and 13th centuries the town of Corfu lay within the walls of the fortress. In the 15th century the Venetians replaced the old fortifications. They built bastions, winding galleries and tunnels. They also erected buildings to house the military and political authorities. These bastions are considered masterpieces of military engineering.
On the open space at the foot of the peak named 'Castel a Terra' stands the church of St. George, built in 1840 by the British in Doric style. The church turned over to the Orthodox cult at the end of the British Protectorate.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Contemplating
Sometimes you just have to sit and watch....a show like this opens hearts and souls to the infinite beauty of Mother Nature.
I felt blessed to be there and .....to be here!!
one-arch bridge
This is "Allamanou" stone bridge. It was built in April of 1858 on a location called "the grand stream", a few km away from the small town of Agia towards the coastline of Thessaly (Greece)
Oracle of the Dead and convent of Agios Ioannis Prodromos
The most famous nekromanteion (or nekyomanteion), or oracle of the dead, of the ancient Greek world lies near the northwest shores of the Acherousian Lake, where Acheron and Kokytos, the rivers of Hades, meet. Ancient literary sources describe the Acherousian Lake as the place where the dead began their descent to Hades, and associate Ephyra, the Epirote city located further north, with the ancient cult of the god of death.
The nekromanteion attracted people wishing to meet the souls of the dead, as these were able to foresee the future after having left their body. Homer provides the earliest reference to the nekromanteion of Acheron in his Odyssey, when Circe advises Ulysses to meet Teiresias, the blind seer, in the underworld in order to get an oracle for his return to Ithaka (k, 488, etc). Homer also gives a vivid account of the mortal Odysseus's descent to Hades (l, 24, et.c.). Other Greek heroes also attempted the descent into Hades: Orpheus seeking to bring back his beloved Eurydice, Hercules in his search for Cerberus, the tree-headed dog guarding the exit from Hades, whom King Eristheas had asked for, and Theseus with Peirithos in order to seize Persephone.
The remains of the actual nekromanteion date from the Hellenistic period. These comprise the sanctuary's main building, erected in the early Hellenistic period (late fourth-early third century BC), and an annex of the late third century BC, which consisted of a central courtyard surrounded by rooms and warehouses. The sanctuary operated in this form continuously for approximately two centuries, but was burnt down and ceased to function after the Roman conquest of Macedonia in 167 BC. The sanctuary's courtyard was occupied once again in the first century, when Roman settlers arrived in the plain of Acheron.
The convent of Agios Ioannis Prodromos and its cemetery were established over the ancient ruins in the early eighteenth century.
Excavated in 1958-1964 and 1976-1977 by the Archaeological Society at Athens, the nekromanteion of Acheron was the first sanctuary and oracle of the gods of the underworld to be brought to light.
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