Greece is a museum

I know I have said this in a previous post but it is so true.  No matter where you turn there are fantastic ruins.  Ancient Messini was the last place we visited.  Here is a view of the site from the village of Mavromati above the ruins.

The remains of this vast ancient city are at least as extensive as those of Olympia or Epidavros, yet Ancient Messini receives only a fraction of their visitors.  It is quite out of the way, inland between Kalamata and Kiparissia, and whilst there are road signs to it from a certain point, it is nevertheless not easy to find.  Once you get there, you are gobsmacked.  It is picturesquely situated on a hillside below the village of Mavromati.

Lions' heads.

Mausoleum.

Always an ancient theatre.

Most impressive of all, the stadium.  The Greeks used stadiums as places of sport, whereas the Romans moved more towards gladiatorial and animal contests.

An attendant at the ruins explained to us what we already knew, that compared to the big boys of archaeological digs, this site is relatively ignored.  Sites like Delphi and Olympia get thousands flocking to them whereas Ancient Messini is not well known.  But he also explained to us something else.  Archaeologists themselves disagree as to the extent of restoration at sites.  At Delphi they dig and leave alone the pieces excavated to speak for themselves but put the prize finds in the accompanying museum.  If you understand the ruins, well and good, if you can't visualise what these ancient sites looked like, too bad.  Here at Messini, the archaeologist, the same one for the last 40 odd years, believes in some restoration in order to allow people to get an idea of what the ancient city looked like.

Not far from the ancient ruins were these pieces on either side of the road, of what may have been a small fortress or citadel we were driving through.  This is what I mean by Greece being a living museum.