Ancient Greece Tour : October 17 to 26, 2009
Tour leader was Professor Michael Fuller, Archaeologist and Anthropologist.
Day 1 - Depart St. Louis for flight to Athens; we will be using Delta Airlines
Day 2 - Arrive Athens: transfer to hotel (Esperia Hotel); welcome to "Athens by night".
Students and faculty having dinner at "Athens at Night."
STLCCC students and faculy dancing in the Athens at Night dinner party.
Day 3 - Departed for 5-day classical tour . First site that we visited was ancient Corinth and the canal, Lunch in the village of Mycenae, then a visit to the Late Bronze Age Palace. Last site to visit was Epidaurus, then drove to Nafplio where we spent the night.
Woven wheat votive sold by an elderly Greek woman named Maria. Reminescent of the offerings to Demeter/Ceres,
Maria selling the woven wheat votives to tourists at the Corinth Canal. She charged 1 Euro for the wheat weavings.
Corinth Canal
We spent a hour examining the ruins of Corinth and another hour in the museum at the site.
Stone fragment decorated with the 3 menorah designs in the Corinth Museum. The New Testament book of Acts describes a
synagogue in the city.
Medieval relief panel with the design of a lion eating grapes from an arbor, two columns and a arch decorated with with a
Kufic or pseudo-Kufic inscription. The letters are definitely Kufic, but it unclear if the letters are decorative or actually
spell out words.
Glass beads in the Corinth Museum.
Fragments of musical instruments in the Corinth Museum
Small pottery vessel with the painted decoration showing a women weaving on a vertical loom.
STLCC archaeological tour group at the Lion Gate at the Late Bronze Age palace of Mycenae
Tholos tomb at Mycenae
Evan and Susan in the ancient theater at Epidaurus.
Day 4 -Spent an hour at the newly opene Nafplio Museum then departed for the World Heritage site of Olympia.
A small Medieval castle in the harbor of Nafplio in the background. STLCC students and faculty: Susan, Andrew, Diane, Professor Fuller and Evan.
Professor Fuller making notes on the Temple of Hera at Olympia.
Part of the marble decoration of an Byzantine Christian church near the Temple of Apollo at Olympia.
Day 5 - Visit St. Andrew Cathedral. Visit the new museum in Patras. Go over a bridge from Rion to Andirion; take sea road via Nafpaktos and Galaxidi to visit oracle at Delphi and the Temple complex associated with Apollo. Spend night in the village of Delphi.
New Cathedral of St. Andrew in Patras
Icon of the Virgin Mary in the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Patras.
Votive candles that had been offered with prayer in the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Patras.
Priests leading a mass to pray for the soul of the Archbishop of Athens who died 2 years ago. The iconostasis is open
and the altar with crucifix can be seen in the background.
Ruins of the Athena Pronaos complex on the lower slope of Delphi.
Roman Period mosaic in the Delphi Museum.
Bronze statue of a chariot driver in the Delphi Museum.
Day 6 - Visit Meteora monasteries including the Great Meteora and Nunnery of St. Stephan. Overnight in Kalambaka.
One of the monasteries of Meteora from the ground level
STLCC archaeological tour group at the entrance to the Great Meteora monastery
Wicker covered wine bottles in the museum of the Great Meteora monastery
Day 7 - Visit Thermopylae, site of ancient battle between King Leonidas & his 300 Spartans against Persian army led by King Xerxes; arrive in Athens and visit the Athenian Agora Excavations and Museum.
Memorial at Thermopylae to the 300 Spartans
Athenian Agora archaeological lab tour by Prof. Susan Rotroff.
Athenian Agora storage of Roman Amphorae.
Medieval Sgraffito bowl in the Athenian Agora Museum.
Days 8 - Visit Athenian Acropolis, Parthenon Museum, Byzantine Museum, and National Archaeological Museum.
Propylae at the Athenian Acropolis
Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis
Marble statue of Aphrodite, Pan and Cupid in the National Archaeological Museum.
Golden Mask dating from the Late Bronze Age that was excavated in Grave Circle A at Mycenae.
Day 9 - Visit the National Folk Art Museum in the Ottoman Period mosque and two of the Benaki Museums.
Day 10 - Depart Athens for flight to St. Louis