First we went to the Agora museum, which is a nifty little museum that's inside the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos. They have a lot of really interesting finds in there, dating from the prehistoric period all the way up to the Byzantine period- these are ostraka from the classical period. Can you sound out the names?
This is a wall painting from a restored Byzantine church in the Agora. I love looking at Byzantine paintings. I went to the Benaki museum this morning and spent hours looking at the icons there- they're all very beautiful and oddly compelling.
The Hephaistion! This temple, located on a hill in the agora, is actually one of the best preserved temples from antiquity. (It still has a roof. This is extremely rare.) If you walk up to it, you can peer inside and see some of the carvings. Unfortunately, you can't go inside.
In contrast with the Acropolis, the agora is actually very quiet and peaceful. You mostly get to wander the ruins by yourself, occasionally being interrupted by a guard jumping out of the bushes when they think you're getting too close to something. The funny thing is that back in the day, the agora would have been a very lively place- it was a center of both markets and governmental bodies.
We believe that these signs mark the center of some sort of cult worship. The cult of "Apagoreutai h Diabasis" was apparently a religious cult of some prestige, and the sites of cult activity, located within the agora, were off-limits to the uninitiated. In respect for these ancient traditions, and for the preservation of the important archaeological evidence, the public is asked to stay off.
...or not.
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