After a VERY early morning ferry and some long driving I made it back to where I started, sort of, Thessaloniki, on the Thermaic Gulf and Greece’s second largest city. So far, every town I’ve visited in this country has the craziest streets. They’re steep and they twist and turn in ways that seem to make absolutely no sense. Plus alleys and staircases taking off in a million different directions. It can be very confusing and it makes for some difficult driving. Luckily, I managed to find my hostel right at the base of the Trigonion Tower. When I walk out the front door this is what I see.

My hostel is up high in the old town, which was just built up around all the Byzantine and Ottoman castle ruins. I had fun walking around from site to site and just strolling around looking for food in the evenings.

My last night I took a walk west from the tower to an area I hadn’t been yet just to explore, and the old walls just seemed to go on forever.

Eventually I came to what seemed like a more neglected part of town. Lots of graffiti and all the cats seemed a bit more rough around the edges. There were bronze age settlements here originally, eventually ancient Macedonians built here, the Byzantines built on top of that, the Ottomans built on top of that, and modern Greeks are just following the trend.

Most of the cool stuff in Thessaloniki is down the hill towards the water, though, so let’s go. First up was the 7th century Church of St Demetrius. This is the most important church in Thessaloniki and St Demetrius is the patron saint of the city.

Pretty much all of the churches here started out as Byzantine churches, then were converted to mosques when the Ottomans took over. When Greeks won their independence and after several hundred years of Ottoman rule, the mosques were converted back to churches and all these ancient frescoes and mosaics were “discovered”.

The remains of St Demetrius are kept in the church in that silver coffin below left. I had to wait quite a while to get a pic because there was a huge line of people waiting to pray and kiss that plastic case that it’s in. Down in the crypt was a really cool Roman bath where apparently, he was killed by the emperor Galerius in 306 AD, seen below right.

The ruins aren’t limited to the castle way up the hill, either, there are plenty of them down here too. Here’s the old Roman Forum and Theatre. You can buy a ticket to go inside, but the whole thing is visible from the street.

Arguably, the center of town is Aristotelous Square. It’s grand, but mostly it’s an outdoor shopping mall. At either end of the long street are two important Greek figures to greet you no matter which way you’re going. First was Eleftherios Venizelos, the “Maker of Modern Greece”. He was prime minister from 1910 to 1933. At the other end is the areas namesake, Aristotle, famous Greek philosopher and sort of a local. We’ll talk more about Aristotle in a bit.

The other most important church in Thessaloniki is the 8th century Hagia Sophia, modeled after the one in Istanbul (not Constantinople). Like most of the churches here it was a mosque from the 16th century until about 1912. I find it fascinating that the Ottomans didn’t destroy all the Christian artwork, but instead they just covered it up.

Emperor Galerius, Roman, persecutor of Christians, killer of St Demetrius. He is all over Thessaloniki. The Arch of Galerius was built to celebrate his victory over Persia in 303 AD. As impressive as it is, not much of it survives. Originally there were eight arches and a dome, but now there are only two and almost a half domes left. It once connected the Rotunda and the Palace (coming up next) and the Via Egnatia, which I talked about in the last post used to run right through it.

The Rotunda of Galerius is set just up the hill from the Arch and it’s believed that it was intended to be Galerius’ mausoleum. For whatever reason it eventually became a church dedicated to St George, then the Ottomans built a minaret and called it a mosque, then in 1912 it was converted back to a church and ancient mosaics were discovered.

At the other end of the arch about a block are the remains of the Palace of Galerius. Like the Roman Forum it’s just right there in the middle of a city block surrounded by modernity. It’s quite a contrast!

I did a ton of walking and this was a very big day. Finally, I made it down to the Archeology Museum. I think every city in Greece has one. There was far too much to cover it all here, but here are the highlights for me. The golden mask below left is a death mask believe it or not. They pressed gold plating against the dead man’s face and voila, a golden death mask. I may do this to myself just for fun.

All of these artifacts were found locally around the area. I wasn’t expecting so many incredible mosaics, but they’ve always been among my favorites. The one of Dionysis below was especially beautiful.

Since it was practically across the street, I decided it was time to climb the infamous White Tower. The Ottomans built it in the 15th century as a prison and execution site. It was originally referred to as the Tower of Blood. Gruesome! In 1883, a prisoner painted it white in exchange for his freedom and now it’s Thessaloniki’s most iconic landmark.

The views from the top of the White Tower were pretty cool, though I’m finding Thessaloniki less photogenic than Kavala was.

And what Macedonian city would be complete without an Alexander the Great monument. This one was overrun with skaters, but you can’t tell from this angle.

Before finding dinner and walking up the long steep hill back to my hostel, I passed by the Museum of Byzantine Culture. For some reason this place stays open a lot later than everything else so I figured, why not?

The best part once again was the mosaics. The one below was found on accident while digging a foundation for a new house right here in the middle of the city. How many priceless discoveries are hidden right beneath the surface here?

I also managed to visit the main part of the castle at the top of Thessaloniki, Eptapyrgion (seven towers). It’s mostly an Ottoman castle built on top of a Byzantine fortress.

The Ottomans used the Eptapyrgion as a prison, as did the Greeks for a long time. It was only decommissioned in 1989! Today, you can go inside and walk the entire wall, which I did, of course. The view was stunning from up there.

Now it’s time to venture out on some day trips. Only about twenty five miles inland is the ancient city of Pella. It was the Macedonian capital after Aigai and where Philip II and his son, Alexander the Great, were born. I love coming to these places in the off season because I usually have them all to myself.

Most of ancient Pella is just foundations. At one ancient house, dubbed the Helen House, some really amazing mosaics were preserved though. Below is a Roman soldier fighting a pair of Amazon’s. Too bad the sun didn’t cooperate better. Below that is a hunting scene.

The big piece that gave the house its name is this long mosaic depicting the abduction of Helen from mythology. It’s amazing that it survived this intact for this long!

The on site museum was especially good. There were a lot of cool artifacts in there including a lot of Aphrodite figures. She was sort of the patron saint of the city, or at least the Macedonian equivalent of a patron saint. Below, is a great depiction of Athena and Poseidon competing for the privilege of naming Athens. I’m not sure what the competition was exactly, only that it wasn’t violent and Athena won, obviously.

A lot of graves were found in the area too. These are some of the artifacts from the soldier graves that were found. I had no idea that they decorated their helmets and uniforms with so much gold.

These mosaics were found in another house at the site, dubbed the House of Dionysis, because of the huge mosaic of Dionysis on a jaguar. How do they decide which mosaics stay at the site and which ones come indoors?

After visiting the site I had a very nice souvlaki lunch in the modern part of Pella right near their own Alexander the Great monument.

This is sort of random, but on the way back to the city I found this lonely, forgotten and half buried medieval cemetery. Very cool!

My other big day trip took me the opposite direction to the Strymonian Gulf and the ancient city of Stageira, founded in the 7th century BC. It was a pretty small site, but had a couple of really impressive ruins and some tremendous views out over the water.

Stageira’s real claim to fame, though, is that it was the birthplace of Aristotle. Aristotle is definitely one of the most famous philosophers in human history. He was also tutor too a young Alexander the Great. After his death his ashes were moved back here to his hometown and placed in a small monument. Records from that time indicate that this empty square was where his tomb was located. But… Where is the monument? Where are the ashes? Good questions! No one knows.

At the top of the hill were the remains of the Roman Agora and some more astounding views. It seems like this would have been a very idyllic place to live in it’s day.

I thought I was finished with Thessaloniki, but on my way out of town I stopped at a site just outside the city, the Macedonian Tomb of Agios Athanasios. This little, relatively unknown site turned out to pack quite a punch. It has some of the best preserved ancient Macedonian paintings anywhere.

The tomb was unfortunately looted in ancient times and they’re not even sure who was buried here. Based on the paintings and the style of the tomb, though, it’s believed to have been a high ranking military soldier. Alexander the Great had several generals that were also close friends to him, perhaps it’s one of them. The paintings are in ridiculously good condition and the colors are really unheard of in art this old. Just awesome!

I’m really glad I didn’t miss seeing that tomb! Wow! But now, my time in Thessaloniki is officially done and it’s time to drive on to my next stop. My Greek adventure is well underway and I still have a lot to see. Until the next post…