Delphi

It is believed that 6 temples have been built at Delphi, 3 of wood and 3 of stone. Why here, on the face of a mountain? The temples were built over a spring of methane gas, thus the priests who consulted the oracle were intoxicated. The last temple was built in the 4th century AD, after which Christianity took over from the Greek Gods. We entered an agorra, a market place where you could buy your offering after traveling long distances. Along the way were a series of statues, followed by the treasuries of the various city-states of Greece. All were made of local stone, except for the Athenian treasury which was made of marble. Then came the largest building, the temple of Apollo, of which only a few columns remain. Since there are both Greek and Roman ruins here, we learned to distinguish them by the columns: ridged and in layers connected by lead or brass are Greek, smooth and all in 1 piece are Roman. We also visited a theatre above the temple and then the stadium for the Pythian games with stone seats built in Roman times.

Athenian Treasury

The museum had many unique pieces. There was a Sphinx from 570 BC influenced by Egyptian art, the twins of Agros, a fine ceramic bowl of Apollo (480BC), and the Center of the Earth marker from the temple. Mythology talks about 2 eagles being released by Zeus in different directions around the world and they met at Delphi - the center of the Earth. The best piece was a charioteer at the moment of winning the Pythian games, made of bronze with eyes of enamel and ivory. It is so lifelike that you can see the muscles and veins of the hand.

Charioteer

In the afternoon, we drove to the region of Thessolonia, mostly through the mountains, which cover 60% of Greece, and then a large flat plain with lots of agriculture. As has been true in all of Greece, the skies are filled with smoke and smog. Apparently, this is because of the warm weather we've been experiencing which has winds from the South.