Vari Cave (Attica Day Trip Part I)

Today we took a 12 hour trip out to Sounion and back with some stops along the way. Once again I have too much to say and too many photos for one post, so I'll split it up and do the second half of the day tomorrow. Despite the rain, wind, and cold we were able to see some pretty neat sites.

The first stop was right along the road and was remains of an old flax workshop. Funny part about this was that it had been cut out of the ground to make the metro and then replaced here.

Second stop was Trachones(ancient Euonymon), which was a settlement. Located here was a theater among other things.

This theater supposedly sat 1200 spectators, but I'm just not seeing it.

 Then we visited another settlement Voula, Kalambokas.

This is the crossroads where four roads crossed.

After the second settlement it was on to my favorite site of the day, the Vari Cave. I liked it so much, it's the only thing I included in the title of this blog. We had to climb for 10-15 minutes straight up a hillside to get to this, but I'd definitely do it again.

The cave was surrounded by this cage.

This is a picture through the bars of the cave.

The view from the top of the hill.

Bob descending into the cave.

And me close behind.

Bob found a little cave within the cave.

A man wrote something about the nymphs here.

Here is an inscription about keeping intestines and blood of the sacrificial animals outside the cave.

Pretty sure this heart is modern graffiti.

Sorry for all the cave pics, but I'm obsessed with the cave. I even made Bob take this picture of me in it.

A relief of a man holding an hammer and an architect's triangle standing next to an altar. Above his triangle is an inscription that says Archedemos Archedemos. One can only assume it means the relief is of Archedmos carved by himself, so the second name is his signature.

On the way back down the hill, we stumbled upon this carcass. I found it creepy and thought it looked like a dinosaur.

A little jaunt later we landed at the Vari Farmhouse. I only took this one picture though as I thought it didn't compare to the wondrous cave I'd seen.