On one of Neil’s vacation days, we drove 30 mins from Nafplio to visit the Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidavros.
Entering the Sanctuary of Asklepios, devoted to the cult of Asclepios (the god of medicine). It was founded in the 16th century BC and grew over time to include the temple of Asklepios, abaton (an area for patients to sleep), tholos (altar), theatre, stadium, eating hall, library, baths and hostel.All that’s left of the Temple of Asklepios. In ancient times, people from all over the Mediterranean came to the sanctuary of Asklepios to be healed.View of the temple from the other side. The ramp was apparently for small carriages to enter and leave the building.Taking a break amongst the ruins of the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods, which was built in 2nd century AD during Roman rule when worship of the eastern gods had a revival.The Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods was a huge rectangular building with multiple rooms, including one which was circular.There were also stone benches, and an altar table for statuettes for their ceremonies.The Tholos. Construction took from 365 to 335 BCE, but it was destroyed in the 6th century CE and much of its components reused in other buildings. Reconstruction began in 1984 and it looks like the work is still ongoing.The Abaton was a dormitory where patients slept to wait for the healing god to visit them in a dream.The Ancient Stadium was built in the 5th century BC to host athletic games in homage to Asklepios, which occurred every 4 years. The track is about 180 m long and 22 m wide, surrounded by a channel for water to help cool athletes and spectators. The temps were in the mid 30s that day so ya, totally get the cooling idea.
The highlight for Felix was the variety of vehicles he found on the site.
The Theatre. It’s the best preserved ancient theatre for perfect acoustics – actors on the stage can be heard by 15,000 spectators without having to use microphones.The acoustics are due to the ingenious engineering by Polykleitos who incorporated multiple factors to improve the acoustics, such as the surface of the seats, which are corrugated, the dimensions and proportions of the theatre, the stone steps to filter background noise, and even the distance between rows of seats to help diffuse sound.It is apparently one of the few theatres with the original circular Orchestra (“stage”) in middle.View from the Orchestra (stage).
What you hear in the background are the cicadas – a constant backdrop of our whole stay.4.3 km, 2 hr 22 min.
The theatre looks great. Built to last!
Very skilled engineers long long ago!
Very skilled engineers long long ago!