My trip around Balkans 2nd stop Greece Thessaloniki 1st part

Hi Dear Steemit community,

Talking about nothing but me if you have a name whose origin is from Ancient Greek language, if one of your interests is Hellenism and you love travelling. Visiting Greece is a must.

New in this city my first visit was the Trigonou tower by bus on the top of an hill and part of the Byzantine walls in Thessaloniki. It looks an open archeological site surrounded by buildings at least it is my impression.

It was already hot and it was closed. But I was able to see the beautiful view of the whole bay. It looks a touristic area with some bar and restaurants.

Walking down towards the bay I was going to visit the Archeaological museum. The first part is mostly dedicated to the period between 1200 and 700 B.C. The birth of first cities, material for the settlement between Mt.Athos and Olympus in south-east of Thessaloniki. Some description of ruins during the Bronze and Iron age.

The creation of the Agora the business centre area. Description concerning educatation and athletics to the local population. At that period children learn to read,write, mathematics, practice sports in the gymnasium. According to the inscription it is the told that the Macedonian cities provided for the phisically fitness for children between 14-18 years old and a military training between 18-20 years old.

Information about population through cementaries, the remain of the houses, ancient texts. A part dedicated to the travel, trade,agricolture fishing and hunting. The symposium traditional custom of upper-class men. Some examples of clay objects ceramic workshops and some production techniques. Part of tombs, inscriptions, gravestones, reliefs.

The music considered important for the education of young people rarely were recorded it is not possible to reconstruct accurately the Ancient greek music only through the help of the ancient texts, images of musicians on vases and reliefs. Some wall paintings and portraits.

A description of social hierarchy at that time: aristocrats,slaves and freedmen (slaves who obtained their freedom).
The period before the foundation of Thessaloniki and the period under Romans through reliefs slab, the Dyonisiac composition on the floor mosaics and portraits.

The city cementaries with marble sarcophagis and gravestones

A section dedicated to workship of Egyptian and Greek gods and statues during Roman empire.

Another groups of rooms dedicated to the Gold and Jewlery during the ancient period used for manifacture, vases and accessories, decorations of weapons, fabrics and furniture. It is told that the value of silver and gold at that time were equivalent because they were both rare.

It is told that Macedonia first coins were struck in the 6th century B.C, In Ancient Greek literature is mentioned many times the explotations of this region along with Thrace gold mines and contemporanean reaserchers confirm it as well as some other gold mine were in the surrounding regions. The gold found also in river Sediment was among the first metals used in the antiquity but it is difficult to locate and date accurately any mining activity in the riverbed.

Ancient goldsmith who were artisan rather than artists no sign in their work which for this reason do not preserve their name, The different techniques of manifacturing gold : casting not very common and the most common the one in which the artisan beat the gold out with an hammer to produce flat sheet. The decorative tehniques for Greek artifacts. Technique for silver and gold plating. Most of Gold artifacts were found in tombs in the cementaries of the ancient Macedonian between 6th and 2nd century B.C.

The Derveny Papyrus the oldest European “book” inscribed as Memory of the World in the International register of Unesco in 2015.
The burial custom reflects the aspect of ancient societies, reconstruct and interpretate the rites associate with burial and highlight its social aspect of the death.

The last section is dedicated to object from Bronze age, Arcaic, Classical and Roman period. Mostly figures, and pottery.

From the Archeaological museum I move to the coast check where having my lunch the idea was to eat the most famous Greek dish Moussaka made with eggplants in tomato sauce and typical Greek salad with feta cheese.

After the lunch I was very close to statue of Alexander the Macedon and the white tower symbols of the city

(Statue of Alexander)

It is possible to visit inside the white tower the ticket including a audioguide. A document is required as deposit. The audioguide mostly talk about the history of the tower and part of Thessaloniki. (I paid 15 euro pass allowed to visit White tower, Archeological museum, Archeaological site of the Roman Agora and Museum of Byzantine culture).

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Best Regards and Thanks for your attention

(All the photos are my own property)

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