Thásos (Part 3) The Ancient City

Pathway up towards the top    

After a hearty lunch of souvlaki and beer we needed to walk off some calories. There was only one way to do that – climb up to see the old city walls and hilltop sanctuaries. The steps up from the town turned into a narrower and narrower pathway as we neared the top. The climb, however, was worth it and we soon found ourselves scrambling amongst the ruins of the old fortifications. Though the towers date from medieval times, there have been temples and sanctuaries on the same sites for thousands of years.

Ancient Apollo Pythios temple marble reused in the medieval defensive towers   

Views down from the fortifications   

From the visit to the museum we knew that on the hilltop there used to be 3 sanctuaries, the lower one for Apollo Pythios, the next for Athena Poliouchos, and the highest one for Pan. The towers of mediaeval Thasos’ defensive walls had been made partly using stone from the sanctuary of Apollo Pythios; you could see the contrast in the different qualities and styles of stonework very clearly as well as some ornately carved pieces set into the walls low down.

The hilltop sanctuary of Athena Poliouchos   

Climbing higher we reached the hilltop sanctuary of Athena Poliouchos. The foundation walls are still standing and the layout is obvious but here too it looks like the old temple stonework may have been reused elsewhere. The information board for the site was very faded and so we found out very little about it.

View down towards Thásos   

We had hoped to scramble along the ridgeline and make our way back via the smaller site of the sanctuary of Pan but that would have needed full rock-climbing gear. Instead we took one last look at Thásos from our hilltop vantage point and made our way back down the same route and towards the ancient theatre.

Thásos’ ancient theatre   

The theatre which we had seen on our way into the harbour, may have been the one written about by Hippocrates in the 5^th century BC. More likely, however, what we saw dates from a little later, the 4^th and early 3^rd century BC. It is now in the middle of another (stalled?) renovation but between 1966 and 2002 wooden seating was fitted around the old stone seats and the theatre was used for festival performances.

From the theatre we continued down towards the few remains of old commercial harbour, a route that took us past more excavations of the old city. Amongst the new buildings and sometimes in their back gardens, are the walls from ancient buildings and old city gates.

The ruined ancient commercial harbour   

The ruins of the old commercial harbour are predominantly just huge blocks of marble which made up the quay and which now still mark the shoreline. However, it is also possible to see remnants of the old harbour wall under the water and we could easily imagine the 2 harbours with the walled city stepped up the hillside behind.

By now, however, we decided that we had done enough tourism for one day and so made our way back to BV.  Along the front we passed a modern sculpture of 2 dolphins. The marble is completely white with no blemishes which I guess demonstrates why the marble from Thásos has always been so highly prized.

Thásos, Greece