In the southern part of Peleponnese is maybe one of the most legendary cities in the world. Everyone has heard of it, Sparta. Modern Sparta, however, is just an average Greek town and there’s nothing particularly appealing about it. There are a few sites within reach of it though, and that’s why I’m here. First, at the edge of town are the ruins of ancient Sparta. There’s really very little of them left. The site is free to visit and it more resembles a public park than anything else.

The most intact ruin at ancient Sparta is the Byzantine church, but that’s not saying much. It’s really ironic that despite the historical significance of this city, there’s so little of it left.

This square of rocks was once the Sanctuary of Athena. Athena was the sort of patron saint of Sparta and this was the most important temple to the ancient Spartans.

Below is the Theatre of Sparta. I’m a little confused about the timeline, but some excavations were started in 1910, then they were resumed in the 1990’s. Today it looks like not a ton of progress has been made, but they are working on it. There was a lot of activity down there. I think it will be awesome when they finish and it will also be among the largest ancient theaters in the country.

Modern Sparta also has a very small archeology museum. They had some really cool mosaics in there. Below left is Medusa and below right, Perseus cutting off her head.

Two of the most significant finds at the Sanctuary of Athena are seen below. Below right is a statue of a Spartan warrior presumed to be Leonidas. He is the famous king who led 300 soldiers against two million Persian soldiers at the battle of Thermopylae, at least according to legends. Historians say it was more like a couple hundred thousand Persian soldiers, but that’s still pretty unbelievable. Anyway, he’s still the city’s greatest hero. He and his family also claimed to be direct descendants of Heracles, seen below left.

In town they also have a more modern tribute to their hero, Leonidas. And even more interesting than that are the remains of his tomb a few blocks away fenced off in one of the city squares.

Just a few miles from modern Sparta is the ancient Byzantine city of Mystras, also known as Mizithras. Rather than just a couple of churches, it really is an entire city of ruins. I thought this would be a quick visit like most of the other sites in Greece, but the scope of this place was pretty overwhelming. The ruins covered pretty much the whole mountain!

Speaking of churches, there were several, of course. I remember the larger more significant ones, but I honestly can’t remember the names of all of the smaller ones. One thing they all had in common though was, beautiful 13th and 14th century paintings.

Visiting Mystras involved a lot of climbing. I started at the bottom and slowly made my way up throughout the day. The city was built on a steep slope with lots of fortifications and a big castle way up at the top. The castle was the first building constructed by the Frankish King William of Villehardouin in 1248. Just over a decade later he was captured and the Byzantine empire was restored and Mystras was a Byzantine city from then on.

I don’t remember which church the following pics came from, but I really loved the columns with the Byzantine writing on them. I wonder what they say.

Traditional roads usually found in Roman and Byzantine cities weren’t possible here. Instead they just followed the terrain, which means lots of twisty footpaths and lots of steps of doom.

Roughly half way up is the Royal Palace. Mystras became a royal capital and the home of the local despot in 1349. They were doing a lot of restoration work on the palace so it was roped off and closed, but it is a huge place.

The last church, way up on the hill, before making the final climb up to the castle was Hagia Sophia. I’m sure the churches always get preferential treatment when it comes to restoration and conservation. They are really magnificent buildings though.

Finally, the last push up the steep slopes to the castle. It’s the oldest structure at the site and mostly in ruins, but it was so cool up there.

The views from the top were just awesome. From there I could see the roof of the palace and modern Sparta in the distance. Mystras fell into Ottoman hands in 1460 and stayed that way until the early 19th century. The city was then mostly destroyed in the Greek war for independence. Modern Sparta was established in 1834 and Mystras was abandoned.

From the castle I meandered down the other side of Mystras and stopped at the Pantanassa Monastery for some more ancient artwork.

Pantanassa in particular features lots of gruesome scenes of martyrs being tortured. The church definitely doesn’t shy away from shock and awe. After that the path followed through what was the primary residential area of Mystras. This was a really huge an unexpected site to visit. What a good day!

Street parking in Greece is pretty much free in every city. Sometimes you have to drive around a bit to find a spot, but it’s not that difficult. So after my day at Mystras I found a spot a couple of blocks from the hotel on a street lined with cars that did the exact same thing. The next morning I went to the car to head off on my next day trip and found all the other cars were gone and the street had turned into a giant street market. My car was the only one on the street, but it was completely swallowed up by fruit and vegetable stands and there was no way to get it out. I wanted to take a picture, but I was way too embarrassed. There was a small sign posted in Greek at the end of the road saying that the street turned into a market every Saturday that I apparently didn’t notice, so guess who lost an entire day waiting for the street market to end at three o’clock so he could finally move his car? It’s definitely one of the funniest and most epic mistakes I’ve ever made while traveling. Anyway, I went and visited the ruins of Messene the next day. Haha!

Messene was originally inhabited in the bronze age. At some point they were subjugated by their much more aggressive and militaristic neighbors, the Spartans. Many of the inhabitants fled and lived in exile. But after the Spartans defeat in the late 4th century BC, King Epaminondas called everyone back, they rebuilt the city and beat the Spartans some more. Now their ruined city is far less ruined than Sparta is. Take that Sparta!

Wrestling, and sports in general must have been very important because Messene had a huge Palaestra, a complex for wrestlers to train and practice.

I wasn’t expecting this, but there was also a giant stadium. It’s often hard to tell if a site is going to be spectacular or a just a few foundations, but this place is definitely spectacular! That’s Mount Ithome in the background below.

At the far end of the stadium was this fantastic building. I thought it was a temple to some famous god, but it was actually a family tomb. There was no mention of why this family in particular got the prime real estate, but they definitely did.

Huge sections of the Agora we’re still discernable. I’m sure a lot of these columns had help at some point, but it was really cool walking around them.

Below is the northern part of the Agora. Apparently it was just a place to relax and be seen. There were a lot of fountains and it must have been a really beautiful place in it’s time.

The main temple in the middle of it all was the Asclepeion, a healing temple dedicated to the doctor/demi god, Asclepius. Not much of the temple was left, but this small odeon where healing ceremonies took place was remarkably intact. Messene has probably been one of the better sites I’ve seen so far on this trip. I spent a lot longer here than I thought I would.

After exploring ancient Messene, I had just enough time for another stop, so I quickly drove south to the town of Kalamata to check out their archeology museum.

The museum covered all of Messenia, which is one of the regional units of Pelepponese covering the southwest corner of it. Mostly it was pottery. I get why pottery is so important to archeology. Most of what what we learn about ancient cultures comes from pottery. But as an average museum enthusiast, enough with the pottery already! Anyway, here’s an ancient bronze figure of a seahorse. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.

After Kalamata I drove back through the Langada-Taygetos Pass. It was a really fun drive, a beautiful gorge, fall colors, rock tunnels, a great end to a great day. Now it’s time to head a bit north for more of the Pelepponesian peninsula. Stay tuned…