After my early morning ferry ride from Corfu back to the mainland, it was a fairly quick drive to my next stop in Lefkada. There was plenty of time to see some sights along the way, so that’s what I did. Roughly half way to my destination were the ruins of the Necromanteion, a former temple dedicated to Hades and Persephone, the god and goddess of the dead.

The temple was built in the 3rd century BC, but was destroyed by the Romans in 167 BC. Somewhere along the way, the place was buried and a Byzantine church was built on the site and after that, the Ottomans built several fortified houses in the area including one right next to the church. In the 1960’s, a professor of archeology from Athens theorized where the temple was based on his study of ancient texts like Herodotus, Thucydides, and descriptions of the place in Homer’s Odyssey. So he just started digging one day and surprise, he was right. Incredible!

It’s a very small temple and a very small site, but it’s definitely one of the most fascinating sites I’ve seen so far. People came here to consult with their dead relatives and had to go through a series of purification rituals before they were allowed to enter the main sanctuary. As I was walking into the main sanctuary I saw a dead bat on the wall. Seems appropriately creepy.

Below the main sanctuary they also found this creepy sort of tunnel. They have no idea what it was used for or what its significance was. Perhaps it’s some sort of gateway to the underworld. Someday I’ll explore that too, but not yet.

Speaking of the underworld, everyone knows I struggle without my morning energy drink and every country seems to have their own home grown concoction. Greece’s concoction is Hell, and Hell is good!

Lefkada is the name of the city where I’m staying and the name of the island it’s on. It doesn’t really feel like an island though because it’s really not very far off the mainland and it’s connected by a causeway. I was able to just drive there. On the way in I spotted the Chapel of Agios Nikolaos out in the water. I know it’s probably a tiny island, but it looks like they built the place on a sandbar.

Right before reaching Lefkada Town you pass by the Agia Mavra Fortress. It was built by the Venetians in the 14th century to protect the island. Of course I had to check it out.

It was built by the Venetians, the Ottomans added their touches, and in the 19th century the British added a few touches as well. The church is still mostly buried. You can get into the chapel underground and then walk right up to the roof and ring the bell yourself… which I did.

The views around the outside with the water were pretty spectacular too.

Backtracking a little bit closer to the mainland is the sister castle, Griva Castle. No entrance fee or closing hours for this one. It’s just there so I climbed up to the top for some birds eye views.

In some ways I enjoyed this castle even more. No signs, no walkways, just some proper ruins overgrown with grass and weeds, and it’s all mine.

The view did not disappoint. I could see the whole length of the causeway out to Lefkada Island and Lefkada Town right on the shore. It’s supposed to get rainy today and that storm is moving in though. Time to go get checked in and start figuring out where to eat.

The real reason I came here wasn’t for Lefkada, it was to visit the nearby site of the ancient city of Nicopolis. I went to the museum first to learn some stuff though. Nicopolis was built in 29 BC by Roman emperor Augustus as a sort of tribute to himself after he and his top general, Agrippa, defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra in an epic naval battle for control of the Roman empire. The battle of Actium.

There were a lot of cool artifacts in the museum. I liked this piece with the Greek gods. In the first picture we have Athena, Hercules, Hera, and then the three muses trailing out of the pic. Below that are Hermes, some god I can’t remember (sorry), Artemis, and Apollo. Awesome!

The piece below I believe is of Romans battling Amazons. The big statue of Athena was really fantastic. It’s not often you see ancient statues like this with the head still attached.

The actual site was really spread out over a wide area. This must have been a massive city in its prime. I went to the section that required a ticket first. There were the ruins of a giant palatial house and a basilica.

a lot of the mosaic floors in the basilica are covered with a modern roof for protection, but parts of the floors still got wet from the off and on rain today. I took advantage by taking pictures of the wet sections. These mosaic floors are beautiful, but when they get wet they REALLY come to life. They were primarily hunting and fishing scenes.

On the far side of the palatial house were the remains of the baths and on the ceiling inside one of the domes was this awesome mosaic. Apparently, it’s a water nymph riding a sea monster.

I then left that section and explored some of the city walls for a bit. The guy at the ticket booth told me that the rest of the ruins are closed. I was feeling pretty frustrated about it, but I’m trying to make the best of it.

Luckily, most of the walls and a few other parts of the site I was able to see with some creative hiking down some of the dirt roads in the area. When it was all said and done I actually got to see everything, surprisingly. The Roman Odeon was one of the closed parts, but I managed to get some good pics through and over the fence.

The biggest attraction at Nicopolis is the Roman Theatre, which was also closed. Bleh! There was a trail that followed the fence line up and around it, so I went for a little hike to see what I could.

Thankfully, I was actually able to see quite a lot from the fence line. But wait! What? A hole in the fence, you say? Big enough for a grown man, you say? That can’t possibly be true, no no no, you must be mistaken. Haha! I didn’t stay up there long at all because every single car passing on the road could see me up there, but it was so worth it.

Having done everything I came here to do and since It was still relatively early, I decided to walk around Lefkada and have a look. I noticed yesterday and it’s confirmed today that Lefkada Town is verrryyy sssllleeepyyy. There is nothing going on in this town. Below is the towns central square, where all the action and excitement is. Yup, very active and exciting. Every single shop in town is closed too by the way. The only things open are a few coffee shops here and there. Other than that, ghost town.

Here’s the waterfront, which is the beginning of town right at the end of the causeway. Most of that is closed too. Just a couple of coffee shops. All this sounds negative, but I actually enjoyed strolling around the streets and the water makes it a really pleasant place.

I also found a couple of interesting historic churches while wandering around. The Pantokratora Church was built in 1699 at the request of the locals to commemorate their then recent victory over the Ottomans. It really stands out amongst all the shops and more modern buildings.

Just at the end of the street from my hotel is the Church of Our Lady of Foreigners. It was built in 1718 and was used by all the local residents who weren’t from the area, hence the “foreigners” part.

Well, that’s it for this ultra quick stop. Tomorrow I have a long drive to the next quick stop. The turn around here will be headspinning, so don’t stray too far…