Day 9 – Monday, October 10: Mycenae, Corinth, Athens
Today we disembarked from the cruise ship following breakfast. The procedure went well. We met the smiling faces of Aliki and Costos at the Laurion port of Athens. Again, the weather was perfect, with sunny skies and highs around 75. We read from Ephesians 3 and 1 Corinthians 15 as we left the port.
Corinthian Canal
Directly from the port we drove south to the Peloponnese of Greece. First we stopped at the famous Corinthian Canel. It was built over a 11 year span (1882-1893) and is 3.8 miles long, 85 feet wide, 280 feet deep, with the water level around 26 feet. It is really a quite incredible engineering feat!
Ancient Corinth
We then traveled another 20 minutes to the ancient site of ancient Corinth. We first drove directly up to the Acropolis for a peak of the Temple of Aphrodite and a spectacular view of the plain of Corinth 1800 feet below. The massive walls and gates date from between the the time of the Crusaders, Ottomans, and Venetians.
Descending down to the archaeological site, we first walked down to the area of the theater where we saw the Erastus Inscription (he donated his own money for the public works, see Romans 16:23). Then we saw the museum, with an image of the Menorah and many clay sculptures of the body parts represented (see 1 Corinthians 12), Temple of Apollo (one of 14 total pagan temples), the forum (agora in Greek), and the bema (judgement seat). Paul was here for 1.5 years during his 2nd mission journey. From here he wrote letters to the Thessalonica church. During his brief stay here at the end of his 3rd mission journey, we wrote Romans. It was delivered by Phoebe (Romans 16). We read from Acts 18 about Gallio.
“We traveled south today to Corinth, Mycenae, and Cenchrea. I especially loved the city of Corinth. Standing in the agora/forum and reading Acts 18 about Paul sharing boldly here before Gallio was special. We also saw where he most likely was making tents/canopies.”
Mycenae
From here we drove about 30 minutes to Mycenae. Much of what we saw dates from 1,350 – 1,200 BC. At the site we saw the famous Lion’s Gate (1,250 BC), the shaft tombs (where over 30 pounds of gold was found in the 1870s excavations), the palace area, and the cistern. We also saw the Bee Hive tomb of King Agamemnon (or the Treasury of Atreus). We enjoyed singing a few worship songs in the tomb.
Cenchrea
Leaving Mycenae, we started our way back to our hotel in Athens for a late dinner. But before leaving the area of Corinth we made a brief stop at Cenchreae (Acts 18) on the way. This was the harbor Paul used to sail to Ephesus and eventually back to Caesarea. Here Paul cut his hair because of the Nazarite vow he had made (Numbers 6:18). Phoebe also served the church established here (Romans 16:1).
We arrived back at the hotel in Athens for a late dinner and a free evening.
Day 10 – Tuesday, October 11: Athens, Acropolis, Mars Hill, Lycabetus, Plaka
