Continuing with our whistle stop tour, next was the ancient site of Pella.

Excavations of the ancient city were started in 1957 and have revealed large, well built houses with colonnaded courts and rooms with mosaic floors - still amazingly in tact. The mosaics are made of small natural pebbles and are true masterpieces. They date from the late 4th century BC.

The town was laid out on a rectangular grid with streets more than 30 feet wide. Terra- cotta pipes for distributing fresh water are underneath.
Pella was the birthplace of Philip II and his son Alexander the Great.

It was a fascinating site comprising of an administration complex housing the city magistrates and buildings which housed the public archives. It would be here that documents were transcribed, sealed and stored. Archaeologists found dozens of clay seals, pens and ink wells. There were libraries, the royal mint a wrestling ground and the portico of a gymnasium.

It is so nice to have the complete freedom to wander around sites such as this. There are occasionally areas that you cannot walk on but generally you can go almost anywhere. Greece is nowhere near as hung up about health and safety as other countries.

We spent hours here trying imagine what it must have looked like back in the day. Fascinating. We also wondered why such large cities become ruins – did one day, everyone just leave or was there a slow decline and the population just moved on . Maybe mass illness. Maybe a war. Answers on a postcard please!

Muse for this post: the wonders of the ancient world never cease to fascinate.