Geology (Architectural & Otherwise) of the Earth's Center, Part 1: An Overview | Delphi, Phocis, Greece
Taken from the upper portion of Ancient Delphi's Theater, and looking southeastward.
How my old and humble photos could possibly do justice to the locale the ancient Greeks considered the center of the Earth, I do not know. But I have to try to present a few interesting aspects. Right off the bat, I can say I have never visited any more awe-inspiring landscape in the Old World.
Recognized as a place of numinous power since at least the Bronze Age, Delphi began as a site sacred to Gaia (Ge, Gaea), the great Earth Mother. Later that deity was mostly supplanted by Apollo, whose temple is marked by the columns at bottom.
There, in the inner sanctum, the Pythia, a priestess endowed with the god's own foresight, sat on her tripod and provided supplicants with oracular answers. To get in the mood, so to speak, she reportedly chewed laurel leaves and inhaled the vapors issuing from a chasm in the limestone bedrock.
Generations of archaeologists have argued about whether the fume-generating fissure was really ever there. One scientific paper I've read suggests that both carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide may have been produced from nearby bituminous strata. But the latter gas, which produces that loathsome rotten-eggs stink, is so toxic I can't imagine any prophesying priestess lasting very long. Talk about an unsafe workplace.
This photo and the rest of this set were taken on a misty, early-March day when the Almond Trees (Prunus dulcis) were already blooming merrily away. They will be more visible in the shots that follow.
Despite the low and milky haze, this view offers a good look at the access road that connects this renowned archaeological site with Thebes in Boeotia, some 70 km / 44 mi to the east-southeast as the crow (a bird associated with Apollo) flies. Like Delphi itself, the roadway is perched on the southern slope of the huge Mount Parnassus massif. More on that later.
The scenic, steep-walled gorge below us is that of the Pleistos River, which flows into the Gulf of Corinth at Kirra (about 7 km / 4.4 mi to the right and southwest of this frame). This is a genuine, fault-controlled rift valley that parallels the much larger Corinth-Saronic graben. Both of these down-dropped blocks are a sign of the extensional tectonics that are going on, as the Peloponnesus is being pulled away from mainland Greece.
To see the other photos and descriptions in this series, visit my Geology (Architectural & Otherwise) of the Earth's Center album.
Geology (Architectural & Otherwise) of the Earth's Center, Part 1: An Overview | Delphi, Phocis, Greece
Taken from the upper portion of Ancient Delphi's Theater, and looking southeastward.
How my old and humble photos could possibly do justice to the locale the ancient Greeks considered the center of the Earth, I do not know. But I have to try to present a few interesting aspects. Right off the bat, I can say I have never visited any more awe-inspiring landscape in the Old World.
Recognized as a place of numinous power since at least the Bronze Age, Delphi began as a site sacred to Gaia (Ge, Gaea), the great Earth Mother. Later that deity was mostly supplanted by Apollo, whose temple is marked by the columns at bottom.
There, in the inner sanctum, the Pythia, a priestess endowed with the god's own foresight, sat on her tripod and provided supplicants with oracular answers. To get in the mood, so to speak, she reportedly chewed laurel leaves and inhaled the vapors issuing from a chasm in the limestone bedrock.
Generations of archaeologists have argued about whether the fume-generating fissure was really ever there. One scientific paper I've read suggests that both carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide may have been produced from nearby bituminous strata. But the latter gas, which produces that loathsome rotten-eggs stink, is so toxic I can't imagine any prophesying priestess lasting very long. Talk about an unsafe workplace.
This photo and the rest of this set were taken on a misty, early-March day when the Almond Trees (Prunus dulcis) were already blooming merrily away. They will be more visible in the shots that follow.
Despite the low and milky haze, this view offers a good look at the access road that connects this renowned archaeological site with Thebes in Boeotia, some 70 km / 44 mi to the east-southeast as the crow (a bird associated with Apollo) flies. Like Delphi itself, the roadway is perched on the southern slope of the huge Mount Parnassus massif. More on that later.
The scenic, steep-walled gorge below us is that of the Pleistos River, which flows into the Gulf of Corinth at Kirra (about 7 km / 4.4 mi to the right and southwest of this frame). This is a genuine, fault-controlled rift valley that parallels the much larger Corinth-Saronic graben. Both of these down-dropped blocks are a sign of the extensional tectonics that are going on, as the Peloponnesus is being pulled away from mainland Greece.
To see the other photos and descriptions in this series, visit my Geology (Architectural & Otherwise) of the Earth's Center album.