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Dion was the holy city of the Macedonians, a sanctuary of Zeus, located
between the coast and the peaks of Mount Olympus where Zeus had his
palace along with the other immortals, as the Greeks believed.
It was here that Archelaos I, at the end of the 5th century BC first
held brilliant festivals, the Macedonian version of the Olympic games,
at which sacrifices were offered to Olympian Zeus and they included
dramatic and athletic competitions in honour of Zeus and the nine Muses.
It was here that the kings celebrated their military victories and dedicated
votive offerings. The most famous dedication was the bronze sculptural
group depicting twenty-five of Alexander’s companions who fell
at the Granikos’ battle, the work of Lysippos, the great sculptor
of the 4th century.
In 43 BC Dion became a Roman colony and many of the ruins we see today
belong to that period. Dion is a large archaeological park nowadays.
Visit the museum before you go to the site. It will give you a lively
picture of life in ancient Dion.
On the ground floor you will see sculptures and votive offerings from
the sanctuary of Isis, models of the main temples of the sanctuary of
Demeter, the statues of the sons and daughters of Asclepius from the
public baths of Dion.
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One
of the most interesting things you can see in the museum is the hydraulis,
the first keyboard musical instrument in the history and the ancestor
of the later church organ. In 1992 during excavations at the site of
ancient Dion the upper parts of this musical instrument were discovered
and a few years later a research project for the reconstruction of the
Dion hydraulis was initiated and it was completed in July 1999. In the
basement of the museum a very interesting exhibition has been organized
show you the life of people in Ancient Dion.
After the museum visit the excavated site of Dion. Follow the marked
paths in the archaeological park to see the sanctuary of Isis with replicas
of the statues found there, the paved roads of the city, the walls,
the public baths of which the underground heating system has been preserved,
the Hellenistic theater and the “villa of Dionysos”, so
called from the superb mosaic depicting Dionysos on the floor of the
main room.
Dion is located 85 km south of Thessaloniki in the beautiful, forested
region of Pieria.
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Copyright 2004 Third Wave Travel |
