Sunday September 19

Being Sunday our first stop was at a church. The Basilica of St Demetri was built in the 4th Century on the site of the old Roman Baths where Demetri had been martyred and buried for his Christian Faith.

When we arrived the service had been going for about an hour and still had two or more hours to go. The chanting by the team of male cantors was beautiful with counterpoint and harmony featuring to make a wonderful sound. However it's hard to say how much of the message of the service came through. Everything was chanted including the Bible readings. Needless to say we didn't wait for the service to finish.



We then drove through the old town following the city wall to the acropolis and the Trigonion Tower.

White Tower Thessalonika

City Wall Thessalonika

Trigonion Tower Thessalonika Acroplois

Then it was on to Beroea, the only city mentioned in Acts where Paul wasn't thrown out of the synagogue, but instead they studied the Scriptures carefully to see if what he said was true. The Bema (Podium - the thrtee steps in the centre) where he preached the gospel to the population is commemorated in a mosaic decorated shrine.








From there it was on to Vergina, the best archeological site yet, though unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos so all you can see is the place we had lunch! At Vergina a Greek archeologist had noticed a large mound (14metres high) in the middle of the town that looked like a burial mound - what we would call a Barrow, but the Greeks call a Tumulus. So he decided to explore it and slowly uncovered a large cemetery with many graves that had been broken up by grave robbers. Eventually though they came across two untouched and sealed burial chambers built in stone, one 9.5m by 4m, the otehr 6.5X4m. They discovered that these contained the remains of King Philp II of Greece and probably the 15 year old Alexander IV who was assassinated, along with an amazing collection of belongings buried with them including stunning gold wreaths fashioned like oak leaves and acorns.


All of these are now housed in an underground display room that is made to look like the original burial mound.

Mt Olympus

Finally we drove 3 hours (!) to our next hotel via Mt Olympus, which we could just see through the smog.