1/ Mystras
Located five kilometers west of Sparta, at the foot of Mount Taygetos, Mystras is considered to be one of the most important historical sites in the Peloponnese. The site boasts a rich history that stretches from the 13th to the 19th century, being an important political, religious, intellectual, and financial center.
Mystras, the best preserved example of medieval walled town in the Greek region, is today a standing ghost city that fascinates the modern traveler with its castle, churches and the palatial complex of the ruling Byzantine dynasty, bearing witness to its bygone greatness. The 13th to early 15th centuries frescoes of Mystras churches represent the peak that the Byzantine religious painting had reached.
In 1448, the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaeologos, was crowned there.
The town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Church of Hagios Demetrios, the earliest of the surviving churches of Mystras, is the metropolitan church built in the second half of the 13th century as a wooden-roofed basilica.
2/ Tiryns
Tiryns is a Mycenaean archaeological site in Argolis in the Peloponnese, and the location from which mythical hero Heracles performed his Twelve Labours.
Tiryns was a hill fort with occupation ranging back seven thousand years, from before the beginning of the Bronze Age. It reached its height between 1400 and 1200 BC, when it was one of the most important centers of the Mycenaean world, and in particular in Argolis. Its most notable features were its palace, its Cyclopean tunnels and especially its walls, which gave the city its Homeric epithet of "mighty walled Tiryns". Tiryns is linked with the myths surrounding Heracles, as the city was the residence of the hero during his labors, and some sources even cite it as his birthplace.
The famous megaron of the palace of Tiryns has a large reception hall, the main room of which had a throne placed against the right wall and a central hearth bordered by four Minoan-style wooden columns that served as supports for the roof. Two of the three walls of the megaron were incorporated into an archaic temple of Hera.
Tiryns is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Mycenae is an archaeological site near Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese.
In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centres of Greek civilization, a military stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece, Crete, the Cyclades and parts of southwest Anatolia. The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae. At its peak in 1350 BC, the citadel and lower town had a population of 30,000 and an area of 32 hectares.
Mycenae is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
4/ Island of Delos
The island of Delos, near Mykonos, is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece.
According to Greek mythology, Apollo was born on this tiny island in the Cyclades archipelago. Apollo's sanctuary attracted pilgrims from all over Greece and Delos was a prosperous trading port. The island bears traces of the succeeding civilizations in the Aegean world, from the 3rd millennium B.C. to the palaeochristian era. The archaeological site is exceptionally extensive and rich and conveys the image of a great cosmopolitan Mediterranean port.
Delos was attacked and looted twice: in 88 BC by Mithridates, the King of Pontus, an enemy of the Romans, and later, in 69 BC, by the pirates of Athenodorus, an ally of Mithridates. Since then, the island fell rapidly into decline and was gradually abandoned.
The actual ruins consist of four areas which are the Maritime Quarter next to the harbour, the Lion District, the Theatre District, Apollo's Sanctuary which are all spread along the coast.
The entire island of Delos is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Continue your journey
- On the road and in town, drink and food, campsites is here
