Most Popular Posts

As you know on the first day of the new year, I publish the all-time favorites.   This year the top three from the 190 posts were:

1.    In the Land of the Cyclops

http://dgscrosscountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2016/04/in-land-of-cyclops.html

2.   Poseidon’s Temple and the Aegean Sea

http://dgscrosscountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2014/04/poseidons-temple-and-aegean-sea.html

3.   Porto Rafti

http://dgscrosscountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2014/03/porto-rafti.html

Most of the 50,000+ visitors were from the United States, followed by Greece and Russia, France, Germany, Ukraine, Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia.

I wish you all and your loved ones a healthy and happy New Year.  I also hope 2020 will bring peace on home planet Earth.

An Early Christian Basilica

The bay of Porto Rafti (Λιμην Μεσογαιας) was a major port in Ancient Greece. The villages of Steiria, Prasiai, and Koroni were around the bay.  At Steiria (Porto Rafti) there was a settlement, a harbor with its pier still visible, a large cemetery and a basilica indicating a large population. 

Because Porto Rafti was the only bay on the east shores of Attica boats travelling to and from the Aegean islands and Asia Minor used it to conduct trade with Athens.

Few remaining antiquities are left around the bay.  At Drivlia (Steiria) the ruins of the Early Christian basilica (Αγια Κυριακή?) still exist.  The three-sided funerary basilica has been excavated and is located nearby the large Roman cemetery in use in the 4^th-6^thcentury BC.  In the same area remains of a bath complex and houses and multiple coin finds attest to a prosperous early Christian settlement. 

The invention of the early Christian church (Εκκλησια) was an important architectural development as it was achieved by the assimilation and rejection of previous prototypes, such as the Greco-Roman temples, and the Synagogue.  Basilica is the Latin tem for a large, important church taken from the Greek Βασιλικη Στοα that means King’s hall or Palace.  Basilicas are rectangular buildings with side aisles and pillars extending their length and an apse at one end. It was this type of building the early Christians adopted for their churches, possibly to differentiate them from the temples in which rectangular walled structure was inside and it was surrounded by pillars.  

Porto Rafti early Christian basilica as all Catholic and Orthodox churches faces east.  This orientation was so it faces towards Jerusalem. Another possibility is that because early Christian churches were constructed at sites where Ancient Greek temples existed most of which were aligned to the sun ie East.

Top Three

Five years have passed since I started my blog.  During this time I have uploaded 164 stories.  The three most popular posts are:

Poseidon Temple and the Aegean Sea

http://dgscrosscountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2014/04/poseidons-temple-and-aegean-sea.html

  

Porto Rafti

http://dgscrosscountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2014/03/porto-rafti.html

  

The Goddess, the Queen, and the Plant

http://dgscrosscountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-goddess-queen-and-plant.html

Most of the visitors were from the United States followed by Greece, Russia, France, Germany, Ireland, Canada, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Malaysia in that order.

The picture is from Poseidon’s Temple in Sounion.    It is a place you can enjoy the expanse of the Aegean Sea and the blue of the sky that inspire people when there, so here are some thoughts first in Greek and followed by its translation

Σουνιο, Βραυρώνα, Ναξος, Κρυφο Μανδρακι
Είμαστε πλασμένοι γι'αυτες τις μικρές τις χώρες
Και οι αρχαίοι ναοί που η μουσική τους αντηχεί στο πέλαγος
Αυτος ειναι ο ύμνος της αγάπης μας μεσα στην απεραντοσύνη του γαλάζιου

Sounion, Vravron and Secret Mandrakion

we were born and attached to these places

their Ancient Temples and hymns that

resonate in the sacred Aegean

 and echo

our love's story in the immense expanse

of the blue sky and sea.

On this first day of 2018, I wish you all, your families and friends a Happy New Year.

Raftopoula – A seagull colony

On the east shore of Attica, in the bay of Porto Rafti, there are five uninhabited islets.  One of the five is Raftopoula. 

Approaching Raftopoula from the west.

Seagulls in this region of the world have chosen Raftopoula as their nesting ground.  Gulls nest in large, densely packed noisy colonies returning to the same site after breeding there once.  Careful inspection of the picture depicts 12 gulls.

Seagulls lay two or three speckled eggs.  Both male and female gulls incubate the eggs for a little longer than 3 weeks.  

Young chicks are brooded by their parents for about two weeks, and at least one parent remains with them, until they are ready to fly, to guard them. Both parents feed the chicks, although early on in the rearing period the male does most of the feeding and the female most of the brooding and guarding.

The young gulls have dark mottled feathers. 

Gulls are monogamous displaying fidelity that lasts for the life of the pair. 

Seagulls sweeping over the wine dark sea pass over our trim red and yellow monohull.  In the background the island of Eboea and adjoining islets are visible. 

On the way back a mask of clouds drifted over the sun. Alecos, who was the captain and photographer of our expedition, and I, once again worked our oars while the evening chorus of the seagulls drowned the oars’ splashing swishing….