Day+7-Pylos!


 * Day Seven**

We started off today going to the Palace of Nestor! When we first walked on to the site we stood in the entranceway next to two column bases where wooden columns would have been located. While walking through the site we saw remains of stairs, pottery shards and a room that once housed thousands of Linear B tablets. One of the rooms even had a bathtub in situ (meaning in its original space) where you could still see the spiral design at the rim. We also walked into the throne room where there was a giant circular central hearth.

The floor used to be covered in different tiles, which we had a chance to see drawings of in the museum. One of the tiles had an octopus one it and others had various shapes and designs. Also in the throne room we saw spaces where a throne would have been located and a barbell like cut out in the ground that could have been used for some kind of ritual. Other rooms in the palace had giants pithos jars that might have been used to store grain and other goods. Another thing that we learned about the palace was that it had to out defense walls where as other palaces in the area did, so it raises the question that why did they have to protect themselves? After walking through the site we went to the museum. In the museum we saw a small model of what the palace would have looked like with the second floor, replicas of the Linear B tables found, and lots of pottery. Once we left the museum it was off to the beach! We pulled up to what seemed like the middle of nowhere and no real beach. It wasn’t until we got off the bus that we realized we had to walk down the path. As we started walking we caught a glimpse of the bright blue water, sand, and rocky cliffs. We all sat down and ate out packed lunches and enjoyed the view. Some of us were brave enough to try the water but it was a little cold for others.

On one of the cliff faces was the Cave of Nestor. You could see the cave from the beach below; it looked like a small dark hole in the side of the cliff. A few of us decided to take the hike up to the cliff to go explore the inside. It took us about an hour to get there and back. The adventure started with a nice casual windy walk to the other side of the beach. Then we hiked up a giant sand dune. Next was a prairie field of tall grass and prickly bushes that I swear would jump out at you as you were walking by. The worst part of the hike up was the forest jungle. We had to be very careful where we walked because of the giant spiders and bugs. Greek bugs are from a family of their own. They look like dinosaurs they are so big especially the spiders and millipedes. It felt like we were on the show Survivor! Once we reached the cave we ventured inside. It was ginormous! The roof of the cave went on for days; it never ended. We brought up two walking sticks with our names on them, just like the American flag on the moon, to mark the cave. We wanted to show that Thayer had ventured that far. The view from the cave was amazing! Everyone one and everything looked like little ants crawling on the earth. We also learned that this would be the perfect place for a cave to live in for this very reason of an amazing vantage point. The people in the cave would be able to see their enemy or anyone for that matter coming.