Day 13 – Thursday, May 16: Corinth, Mycenae, Cenchrea, Athens
Today we drove south to the Peloponnese of Greece. Once again we left at 7:30 a.m. following our “balcony breakfast.” The weather was once again pleasant, but the skies were overcast (with some breaks of sun in the afternoon) and a bit dusty because of the unique wind patterns from the African desert. High temps were in the mid 70s. We read from 1 Corinthians 3 (about being the ‘temple of God’) as we left the hotel.
Corinthian Canal
We drove south out of Athens 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, 300 feet deep, with the water level around 26 feet. We enjoyed coffee here too.
Ancient Corinth
We then drove another 15 minutes to the ancient site of ancient Corinth. This huge city (400 – 500,000 at its peak) was the once glorious city near the Isthmus where Paul met Aquila and Priscilla and spent a year and a half preaching the Word of God. Among the ruins we saw the Temple of Apollo (one of 14 total pagan temples), the forum (agora in Greek), and the bema (judgement seat). During Paul’s stay here during his 2nd mission journey, 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 and 2 Corinthians 4. We also 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). Before leaving Corinth we drove to the Acropolis for a peak of the Temple of Aphrodite and a spectacular view of the plain of Corinth below.
Mycenae
We returned to the ancient Corinth area where we enjoyed a gyro (yiro) from a local restaurant. Wow, was it good! Following this lunch stop, we drove 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 13 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 in the tomb. ????
“We drove south today to the Peloponnese. We saw three sites – Corinth, Mycenae, and Cenchrea. Once again, the archaeology, the history of this region, and the Bible all matched perfectly together. We literally walked in the footsteps of Paul today!”
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). As a bonus, we spent about 30 minutes swimming in the port here (the Aegean Sea). We wondered if Paul did the same thing? It was delightful even though the water was a little cool.
We arrived back at the hotel in Athens for dinner and a free evening. We are looking forward to our one-day ferry excursion tomorrow to three islands.
Day 14 – Friday, May 17: Day Cruise to Hydra, Poros, Aegina
