A Greek Adventure - Visiting the Oracle

I'm sorry that these posts are taking so long and evolving over time. On this one, for example, I've had to select from over 200 photos taken on the day; upload them through only-ok wireless internet; and the tabular layout is non-standard and so is hand-crafted for each group of photos. Anyway, I'm just saying.

My first full day in Greece was on a tour. I remembered that I had a tour, but I’d forgotten that the tour was to visit Delphi and the site of the Oracle. What that meant was a three hour bus ride through the Greek countryside and then a climb up the steep hills to the site. Unfortunately, it was raining lightly all day, so the opportunities for pictures of the countryside were limited, not only by the phone’s camera and the bus as a shooting platform, but with the rain on the window too. Nevertheless, it was very interesting to travel through Greece. It has landforms unlike those that I’m used to in Australia. Primarily, the land that I travelled over was large flat valleys bounded by sudden, steep hills and mountains. I’m going to guess that they are old glacial valleys, as there didn’t appear to be rivers running through the middle of them.

After a couple of hours of freeway and highway driving we stopped at a large café for a break. I had a Greek coffee and sugary donut; it was wonderful! We then motored on climbing higher into the surrounding mountains. We passed through a village perched on the side of the mountain. It was described by our lovely guide, Michaela, as a typical, traditional village. It was certainly quaint and had clearly been there for some time as the main road through the village (the only road?) was barely wide enough to allow the bus to pass through, especially where cars were parked at the side of the road. Finally, we arrived at the site of Delphi, where the ancient oracle would offer prophecies in the form of riddles.

The gymnasium associated
with the Delphi site

Michaela, guiding

It was raining and overcast, so the site was a bit bleak, and slippery. Michaela led us up through the Roman Agora, along the sacred way to the temple of the oracle, explaining why things were the way they were. Much of the ruins are in quite substantial disrepair; that is, they are mostly just low footings or column pedestals. There are many other blocks lying around that have been discovered over time, but they cannot be positively located and so are merely stashed around the place. The Greeks have reconstructed the Treasury of the Athenians. Apparently, wealthy and powerful city-states and islands would build a treasury on the site to store valuable offerings that sought favour from the Oracle, or thanked her for the state’s providence. With such wealth on site, one thing that wasn’t mentioned was the large standing guard that must have been present.

Pictures of the Agora and the Sacred Way

The Delphi site was sacred for hundreds of years before the Oracle took up residence because of the vibes of the place (absent on our visit in the rain, I feel) and because of a particular rock, the omphalos which was said to be the navel of the Earth. Frankly, the replica that they have there and in the museum suggests a nipple more than a navel but you can't expect everyone to have the same views. Also, a previous seer, Sybille was famed for making oracular predictions from the same place, seated upon her rock.

The Omphalos

Sybille's Rock

The Treasury of the Athenians

The temple itself has some standing columns which gives the place some more majesty. Interestingly to me, the temple is only half-way up the site. It does have absolutely heart-stopping views of its valley though.

The Temple above the Polygonal Wall

The view from the Temple of the Oracle

The Temple of the Oracle

Michaela’s guiding stopped at the temple but there was more to see above. The hillside is quite steep; in parts, very steep. The walk up to the temple had been slow with stops for explanation, etc. Michaela set the challenge to walk to the stadium at the top of the site, passed the theatre and then back down in 35mins. I was keen to see both sites, so I made the journey. Again, it was quite steep in places, but the view was just extraordinary, even with the cloud cover and light rain.

I just can't get tired of this view!

The theatre was quite large and just above the temple. Much of the audience seating was still in place, but the stage area was gone. On up the hill, this time quite a distance, one walks into the tree line and comes upon the edge of an ancient stadium. You have to walk to the far end to get a good view back over the whole thing. This is another really impressive structure/place. The building itself is quite simple being two facing rows of stone bleachers joined at one end by a semi-circular set of bleachers and at the other with a (formerly) arched gateway to the shed of the athletes.

That's the old gymnasium,
WAY down there!

There are two things that I’m particularly impressed by: that this venue was used two-and-a-half thousand years ago for regular sporting events, and that the athletes would train in the gymnasium so far below the stadium and then climb all the way up to compete. That’s a warm-up, I can tell you!

We then toured the museum in which the various valuable antiquities discovered on the site have been housed. The museum is quite modern, well laid-out and contains some beautiful pieces.

A Model of the Whole Site
Temple Central; Agora missing to left bottom
Stadium missing to top right

The Omphalos (reproduction)

We climbed back into the bus and were driven back down to the little village that we’d travelled through earlier. We stopped this time, outside a store selling tat. I wandered around the town a little bit to try to capture the feel of the place in pictures. It is difficult to get a sense of how steeply the town is pitched.

We got back in the bus to drive back to Athens. I dozed. I had dinner in the restaurant on the top of the hotel again. I do intend to eat elsewhere while I’m in Athens, but the food here is great, the service is lovely, and that view just never gets old! The room I’m in is very comfortable too. I like the pair of pictures over the bed in particular.