GREECE PELOPONNESE ARGOLIS PALAIA EPIDAVROS

the sunken city

The coastal road south of the ancient theater leads after a few hundred meters to a seaside café and taverna from where you walk on the beach to a board indicating the "sunken city". About 30 m away from the beach lie the remains of a Roman villa at a depth of only 1-2 meters in the sea, but there seem to be more submerged structures of the ancient harbour. To see more of it you have to swim there snorkeling.

Having lunch at the beach.

Mycenaean necropolis

Archaeologists have revealed a Mycenaean cemetery on the eastern slope of Katarachi hill, in the area known as "Nera". The more than 30 chamber tombs are surrounded by modern housings and overlook the Gulf of Palaia Epidavros. The corresponding Mycenaean settlement has not yet been found but the investigation of the tombs has shown that the cemetery was in use from the 15th until the 11th century BC. Members of a family or kin group were successively buried in the tombs, for sometimes more than three generations. - The chamber tombs of Palaia Epidavros follow the usual tripartite scheme of dromos, stomion and thalamos. For more information about Mycenaean burials click here.

The cemetery is fenced but accessible and because of its unrenownedness not visited by any tourists (it took me quite some time to find it). During my visit in 2012 there were still tools in a thalamos, indicating recent work.