Ancient Olympia
The long-awaited trip to Greece has come and gone. There was much sun, sea, swimming, moussaka and Greek salads, and we even found time for the trip to ancient Olympia that I've been going on about.
The 6am start was well worth it. A ferry to the mainland followed by an hour on the road, and we arrived at the very welcome air conditioning of the museum.
You might know that Naomi has inherited my love for history, but thus far her interest has been in the Tudor period rather than classical history. Well, thanks to Horrible Histories and a study of classical busts in the British Museum, she has discovered Alexander the Great. So we were both very excited to see the Philippeion at ancient Olympia, a circular monument commissioned by Philip of Macedon, and which contained statues of Philip, his wife Olympias, his son Alexander, and his parents Amyntas III and Eurydice I. It was built to celebrate (among other things) Philip's victory at Chaeronea in 338 BC. Philip died two years after the monument was commissioned and its completion was likely overseen by his son Alexander.
We also did the essential touristy things, like pretend we were athletes running in the stadium, which we discovered wasn't so easy in 40 degree heat! All in all, we had a fabulous trip and are already planning the next one.
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