Insert: Thursday Afternoon in Syracuse (Jan 9th).

Hopping back a blog to the morning when we visited the Concrete Cathedral, in the afternoon we went to the Archaeology Park across the road. To get “across the road” meant a 5 mile car journey of no-left-turns and one-way streets. But having got there the parking was ample and free, as was entry to the Arch Park.

 

The first port of call in the Park was the Greek theatre, seating 15,000, founded in the 5^th century BC and rebuilt in the 3^rd century BC. It is well preserved, and a sophisticated, elegant design. How advanced living standards were all those years ago for the better-off citizens!   

 

We even know some of the plays performed here, written by a playwright called Aeschylus. Ten of his plays have survived to the present day and are still performed. The surviving ten are high drama involving both mortals and the Gods, in epic settings e.g. the Persian invasion of Greece. Perhaps the ones that got lost were the comedies and the “It’s behind you!” ones. 

Climbing up behind the theatre we came upon a street with openings carved out of the rock. These are tombs, and date from the period after the Greeks and Romans. The ruts are cart tracks. Heavy stone coffins obviously.

This is the interior of one of the tombs where the niches can be seen chiselled out of the sides.

On the far side of the theatre is a large stone quarry that supplied the material for the city’s roads and major buildings. It was also used as a secure compound for prisoners of war. For example, in 415BC the city was attacked by a huge fleet of 134 ships from Athens. The offensive was defeated, and all those captured were consigned to the quarries. It looks very peaceful now with the orange trees and other bushes in the bottom.

In the quarry is an odd cave known as the Ear of Dionysius. It’s shaped like an ear and you really can hear a whisper anywhere inside the cave: apparently it magnifies sound 16 times. It’s a big ear, which is why Jane is a hardly visible dot at the entrance. But don’t  SHOUT, you’ll deafen her.

Now up the slope and round the corner to the Roman bit, a 3^rd century AD amphitheatre.

Again, the amphitheatre is in good nick, and the various passageways and tunnels used by the gladiators and animals can be clearly seen, as can the audience access points to those cold stone seats.

Now here’s an odd one. A church built over the Roman baths. It’s a lovely old church, but why would you build it directly over the baths? They could have ended up baptising the whole congregation as well as the baby. But maybe the church knew a thing or two about Roman building as it’s still there in one piece today.

Last, but not least, is the tomb of Archimedes, a native of Syracuse. He was the genius of his time, an inventor, engineer, mathematician and astronomer. A famous story tells of him getting into his bath and, seeing the water level rise, suddenly realised how being immersed in water affected the weight of objects. He jumped out of the bath and ran into the street in great excitement, forgetting he was stark naked, shouting “Eureka” (meaning: “I’ve found it!”).

He was killed when the city was captured by the Romans in 215BC. It had survived a two year siege and had lasted that long largely due to Archimedes military inventions in the defence of the city.

His tomb is a carved rock doorway and the inside actually looks like a mouth with teeth. Is it meant to be Archimedes smile; or was he the inventor of dentures? Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

You think before visiting yet another archaeological site that maybe it’ll be samey- we’ve seen lots of ancient buildings recently, including really spectacular places like Pompeii. But generally each venue has its own character and this was no exception; so it was another interesting day out.