This day was an odd one. After the riots in Athens the entire country went on strike. All government-run sites shut down so the tourist sites were closed. Or at least they would be if this hadn't been Greece. Heaven forbid the Greeks should be consistent. Finding out that these sites would be inconsistently open we decided to try for them. So our first stop was Pella which was about 40 minutes out from Thessaloniki.
Pella was the home of Alexander the Great. From this place Macedonian troops went out to conquer Greece and Persia. Built up under Alexander's father Philip this city became the capital of Macedonia during the 4th Century BC. After Alexander and his immediate successors died the city became less important until it was dwarfed by Thessaloniki after Pella was damaged in an earthquake and the inlets dried up.
Pella is a surprisingly flat area. The entire region is one big plain. Macedonia as a whole is a lot flatter than the rest of Greece. It makes sense that they would have such excellent cavalry. It was eerily quiet on this day. I don't know if it was because of the strike or just due to the small number of people living in that area but we saw no one for miles once we got past the Thessaloniki traffic.
When we arrived at the site we were pleased to find that it was still open. The people running it were very friendly and didn't seem to care much one way or the other about the strike. The town as a whole seemed better off than most of Greece so it might not be that surprising that they wouldn't get as worked up as the people starving down south. The entrance to the site comes up on the left just before you hit the town itself. To the right somewhere are tumuli that contain the bodies of Macedonian kings, including perhaps Philip or at least Philip Arrhidaeus, Alexander's half-brother.
Pella was a town organized on a very clear grid pattern. This city was designed to serve as a capital and was intended to impress. It must have been quite impressive in its day but the lack of any distinctive landscape features means that it doesn't leave much of an impression. At the time it would have made up for that by grand buildings or other unique features but there just isn't enough left to really feel it. What survives is basically the grid system. The streets are all laid out in grids and there are several blocks of foundations laid out.
Pella has some very nice mosaics, several of which are left in situ. These are probably my strongest memories of Pella. The mosaics are really beautiful and somewhat unusual since most surviving mosaics come from Roman times.
They were rebuilding a section of the wall, something which I strongly disaprove of. The work of archaeologists is not to rebuild what they find but to recover it. And unless they're planning on rebuilding the roofs as well having a two foot high modern wall doesn't really add much to the site aesthetically. I suppose that this is the problem with having a well-off town putting money into these sites. They want to make it look better and that means fiddling with them.
There were a few of these shattered amphorae lying around. I know that they're common but it still seems like it should be moved somewhere. These were just sticking out of the ground.
This is the view of Pella from above. This hill, insignificant as it is, was the acropolis of Pella. Just above here is where Alexander had his palace.
The inside of the museum rivals anything I've seen in the UK when it comes to presentation. The halls are big and well lit, and the labels are bilingual. They put a lot of effort into this place and it's hard not to appreciate that.
The museum itself is fairly large. It doesn't have as much in it as might be hoped. There are a few coffins recovered from the tumuli and a number of ceramic artifacts but apart from that and the mosaics there really isn't that much unique to see.
This house was called the House of the Abduction of Helen because of the mosaic on the floor. It depicts Paris abducting Helen thus starting the Trojan War.
That's it up there although you can't see anything from here. They aren't letting people up yet which is a real shame. It'd be nice to see what Alexander saw. The building in front is the museum. It might not look like much but it was very nice inside. Actually, the entire town was beautiful. Apart from the roofs and certain design elements it wouldn't have looked out of place in an American suburb. The town is well off and it shows in the care they take to keep it looking nice and clean. That's one aspect of the decentralization of Greece. If the local population cares and has the money to do something about it they can do a lot for their town. While there's really not that much to see at Pella it is definitely worth going for the historical value and just because it's such a nice place.
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