The Rite of Cycling to an Ancient Place
 

Hello people! Have you ever ridden to an ancient place? I wrote this piece about my recent trip to the ancient Theater of Aigeira, Greece.







When I was a student at secondary school, and even later on at university, ancient monuments never really appealed to me. However, growing up, and especially since I took up cycling, I began to see things very differently. These places shine bright on an another dimension, totally foreign to the coincidental interest of the motorized tourist. They demand a certain sensitivity and a clear sight, both of which require prior preparatory effort in order to be acquired. We must, first, lay the foundations, just like the religious devotees prepare their humbled hearts through fasting. Otherwise, transitioning from the city walls to the Ancient Theatre will devalue mystagogy and rite into mere inanimate moments in the confines of a stone canopy.
Luckily, I know the difference between the two all too well, and that’s why I chose to visit the ancient theatre in Aigeira, with no other company than my trusty bicycle – mid-summer, in fact, when most people go to the beach.
https://bicycleobsession.files.wordp...g?w=1000&h=750
The uphill ride to the theatre is truly a challenge. At first, the shade of the pines you come across after the village sweetens the ride, but, from there on, there’s only low-browed olive trees and και a few almond trees enduring the scorching sun on a golden carpet of dried up weeds.
On my way up, I can feel the intensity of the nature surrounding me, as though it were a stage leaping out of the pages of Kazantzakis’ nostalgic world. I can imagine his characters accompanying me and leading me towards the theatre. It’s not long before a ramshackle sign comes into view, indicating that the Theatre is on the left. A few metres up ahead I turn right to a rugged fairy-tale path.
https://bicycleobsession.files.wordp...g?w=1000&h=750
I cycle slowly, listening to the few cicadae that are interrupting the otherworldly peace and quiet. Soon, from the corner of my eye, I see the theatre’s stage from within the fenced enclosure. I move on a bit more, then leave my bike and try to open the large gate. It’s locked shut, and there doesn’t seem to be a member of staff in the kiosk. I take a furtive look around, climb over the gate and jump off on the other side. Complete stillness. All I can feel is a playful breeze, caressing my ears. With a few quick steps, I pass by Zeus’ temple and am now behind the remains of the proscenium.
The peaceful atmosphere of the place, combined with the first signs of neglect and abandonment, creates an unearthly setting that vibrates from the hidden energy of an ancient marvel. The stone Theatre stands before me, like an alien time portal, inviting me to lose myself in history’s vortex. I notice, as I walk to the stage, that it harmonically completes the clear blue sky. I pass by the scattered broken pieces of the proscenium and stand in the middle.
The grandstands are deformed from the long years of erosion. On most of them the wild weeds have taken over. Some other ones are so misshapen now that the archaeologists have been forced to safeguard them, using some graceless binding material. Yet, none of these changes can confuse the visitor. The effect it has on him/her is not influenced by time. It is influenced only by the visitor’s own self.
I walk towards the grandstands, climb up on each one instinctively and take a seat on the last one.
https://bicycleobsession.files.wordp...g?w=1000&h=750
The sight you gaze upon when sitting in the Theatre feels like pure poetry. The Corinthian Gulf stretches before you like a continuation of the golden hill. This natural beauty, which so naturally attached itself as an extension of the theatrical performances, stirs up a strange sense of seclusion. A sentiment that cannot be justified, if one considers that the theatre is carved wholly out of the rock. It is, in other words, a natural monument. But, for some inexplicable reason, the more you look at it, the more it seems like a foreign body. Like an organism that came to being in the barren hillside of Aigeira, hundreds of years ago, to interact with our own reality, but somewhere in the depths of history, for reasons unknown, it lost its connection with our world and was left to be mercilessly plundered by time.
And we, the modern man and woman, gave it another chance and re-discovered it. W unburied it from the dirt and the rocks, we healed its wounds and christened it once more a Theatre – Ancient. Even so, we have yet not been able to interpret it; for man, the ancient theatre is nothing more than just a stone of historical importance.
For as long as our eyes are trapped in our civilization’s screens and walls, the ancient time portal will remain hidden, deeper and deeper, behind the curtain of our collective memory.


Source

Nice piece. I rode through Rome many decades ago. There was some ancient stuff there, including an old guy in a tiny Fiat who nearly killed me.

I've ridden to a ghost town in Michigan, and to many ancient pubs in Europe...

Newgrange is right on my doorstep.
Newgrange Stone Age Passage Tomb - Boyne Valley, Ireland

A few weeks ago, I rode to the Applachian Mountains that are 480 million years old, near Harper's Ferry, WV.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Mountains#

hahahaha!

Ghost towns are magical places! I wrote a phototravelogue about 3 ghost mountain vilages here


This is fantastic! I would LOVE to explore the place!

Have you read A walk in the woods by Bryson? Great read!

Nice write up! Not to get too far off track, but how is cycling in Greece in general? I love traveling to Europe, and am trying to come up with some week and a half tours for the next few years to replace my trains and Ryanair travels when I go! Never been to Greece, it is on the list.

Glad you liked it :) Greece is incredible for touring... if you have strong legs. People often see it just by riding its boring highways and that's a horrible way to see a country. If you are not afraid to take smaller roads -usually mountainous - you will get to see an amazing variety of landscapes, from mountainous lakes and virgin forests, to amazing beaches. You can see on my blog some of the tours I've done in the country to get an idea. Like this one

" . . .the Theatre feels like pure poetry."

And your writing is pure poetry, as well. Thank you so much for this! Your beautiful travelogue has really stimulated my imagination this morning.

ah ancient works of man in places, ... lots of places are ancient, but have been left undeveloped by Man ..

the (remaining) Redwoods , Grand Canyon

Then the Stone age Britons, built lovely places.. Ireland has several .. Stone henge is from BC 2600..

Not as dry and sunny as Greece, which As I learned put its forests into building warships..

and so it continues ..

Thank you for your kind words, I am very glad you liked it :)

Warships? Forests in Greece have one major enemy, wildfires.

You Were not around when they were building hundreds of Trireme ships.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trireme.. they did not build them for Parties on the Aegean


Cutting the trees also Changes the Climate , and that is where you have More fires than less.
https://artachieve.com/upload/produc...(220)_copy.jpg
Replica.

This big chunk of Bronze was made to Ram and sink other Ships
http://www.ancientathens.org/sites/d...as-trireme.JPG



'/,

Oh, I see! Very few of those nowadays :P

My stories are not nearly as poetic as yours!

I have, on occasion, taken detours while on cycle tours to visit historically or architecturally significant sites. The two that come to mind are the remains of a neolithic shelter in Burgundy, France; and a 400-million year old meteor crater near Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

I am lucky enough to live in a place (Toronto) that has a bike lane/road that follows a footpath established by First Nations people 10 or 12 thousand years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Whenever I travel along Davenport Avenue, I try to imagine what it looked like thousands of years ago: the footpath was sandwiched between the shore of a vast lake and tall white sand bluffs.

Toronto-philes note: Casa Loma was built upon the sand bluff that towered next to the footpath. Lake Ontario extended north to Davenport Avenue. (Geologists refer to the lake as Glacial Lake Iroquois, which was larger than Lake Ontario, and drained into the Mohawk River --> Hudson River instead of the St. Lawrence River. A massive ice sheet still blocked the St. Lawrence River.)

Toronto must be a civilized place, I bet cycling there is safe and relaxing. I 've cycled in Denmark for few months and it was like that, I was just rolling without worrying about anything. Where I live now, I have to be 100%alert or an idiot will squash me like an ant! Both the meteor crater and the ancient footpath sounds exciting!

The cycling infrastructure in Toronto is slowly improving, but I would not characterize it as safe or relaxing. I've been to Denmark, too. In terms of cycling, Toronto is on track to catch up to Copenhagen around the year 2525!

Two years ago, while riding in a bike lane in Toronto, the driver of a pick-up truck made a sudden right turn into a parking lot without signalling. I collided with the side-view mirror, which clipped my shoulder. Fortunately I was not knocked down; but I got a bruise! (The driver refused to take responsibility -- "I didn't see you" he insisted, even though he had been in the bike lane when he turned! -- and left the scene before anyone could get his name or license plate number.

Cycling next to the ancient shoreline along Davenport is pleasant -- but not long ago a cyclist was killed just a mile to the west.

Most collisions between cars and cyclists occur at intersections, with many collisions happening when a car turns right. An intersection can be a street, but it can also be a driveway, a parking lot, or anywhere else a car has room to turn. Cyclists, pay attention at every intersection!!