Dion

Dion was an ancient city of strategic importance and one of the most famous Macedonian poleis. The city seems to have been founded by Perravians of Thessaly, in honor of Zeus. The ancient city owes its name to the most important Macedonian sanctuary dedicated to Zeus. It was Archelaus I who, at the end of the 5th century BC when the Macedonian state acquired great power and emerged onto the stage of history, gave the city and its sanctuary their subsequent importance by instituting a nine-day festival of games that included athletic and dramatic competitions in honor of Zeus and the Muses, whose organisation was overseen by the Macedonian kings themselves. The site of ancient Dion was first identified by the English traveler William Martin Leake on December 2, 1806, in the ruins adjoining the village of Malathria. He published his discovery in the third volume of his Travels in Northern Greece in 1835. Dion is the site of a large temple dedicated to Zeus, as well as a series of temples to Demeter and to Isis. A rare and unusual find in the museum is a bronze "hydraulis" or hydraulic musical pipe organ found in a former workshop.

Distance from Silk Hotel: 25 km