Nafplio
Agamemnon's Tomb
Ruin of the City of Mycenae

Walking tour of Nafplio
Climb to Castillo Palamidi


All pictures expand when clicked on.

The Harmony cruised overnight so in the morning we were docked at the town of Nafplio.

The intrepid crew disembarks for our first excursion ashore.

We were bused to agamemnon's tomb.  Who knows if this was Agamemnon's tomb but it clearly was the tomb of someone important.

Agamemnon, the leading king of the Greek forces in the Trojan War, became king of Mycenae by driving out his uncle, Thyestes, with the help of King Tyndareus of Sparta.  When Helen was abducted by the Trojan prince Paris, Agamemnon led the Greek expedition to Troy to take back his brother's wife.

The Tomb of Agamemnon is one of a number of 'beehive' tombs found in the vicinity of the ancient site of Mycenae. It is by far the best preserved of these tholos tombs, although the others are worth a visit as well.

The tomb is in the shape of a bee hive.  There wasn't any way to capture the size of the tomb in a photo.

The doorway is 5.4m (18 feet) high, and tapers towards the top, which makes it appear even more impressive as you approach it.

The lintel is made of two massive blocks of stone. The one which faces the interior is curved to follow the shape of the tholos, and it is estimated to weigh about 120 tonnes.

The funerary chamber is over 13m (44 feet) high, and over 14m (48 feet) wide. When it was constructed the stonework was decorated with bronze rosettes and motifs attached with nails.

Mike and Charlene pose to give you some idea of the scale of the tomb.

Next we drove to the ruins of the City of Mycenae.

We approached the city through the Lion's Gate.

Mycenae, the fabled city of Homer’s King Agamemnon, still stands in a remote corner of mainland Greece.

Revered in antiquity as the pagan world’s most tangible connection to the heroes of the Trojan War, Mycenae leapt into the headlines in the late nineteenth century when Heinrich Schliemann announced that he had opened the Tomb of Agamemnon and found the body of the hero smothered in gold treasure.

The ruins sprawl over a large area and was clearly an easy place to defend.
When we arrived back in town, our guide Zanna, led us on a walking tour of Nafplio

As you can see it was a nice town with lots of shops and cafes

We stopped at one of the cafes for drinks.

Back on the boat for lunch I was eying the walk up to the Venetian fort that overlooked the town.

Bob, Mike, and I decided to climb the stairs to the Castillo Palamidi.

There are 913 steps in the winding stair from the town to the fortress. However, to reach the top of the fortress there are over one thousand

Bob rests on the way to the top.

This fort was built during the Venetian occupation in the early 19th century and consists of eight bastions, each was self contained, ensuring that if one bastion was breached the others could still be separately defended. The bastions were built one on top of the other and they all connected with one wall.

The fortress commands an impressive view over the Argolic Gulf, the city of Náfplio and the surrounding country.

You can see Harmony V docked at the quay.

Looking in the other direction I noticed a nice looking beach below.

Back on the boat we had to share our tale of daring.

As soon as we could, we got our suits on and headed to the beach that we saw from the castle.

The water was nice as it was a hot day.

Back on the boat, Peggi insisted that I sit for a massage.

Mike and Charlene pose as we head out to dinner.
That evening we had dinner in the square with Mike and Charlene.
At the end of the day Harmony V looks inviting in the setting sun light.

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