Burial Tomb of Philip of Macedon
Vergina, Greece
January 23, 2009
Vergina, Greece
January 23, 2009
Every archeological site I’ve visited has it’s own particular mood and mystery but the burial tombs at Vergina are something special indeed.
For one thing, they’re all underground beneath a nondescript hillock or tumulus in a little town of two thousand people (not counting tourists). Inside the tumulus are the burial tombs of the Kings of Macedon including that of Philip II (father of Alexander the Great) who was assassinated here in 336 BC. The myth was that if any King of Macedon was buried anywhere but here the Kingdom would fall — a prophecy that became eerily true when Alexander died in Babylon not long after. It was assumed the site was lost beneath modern urban development in nearby Edessa but in 1977 a local archeologist who’d been digging here for years finally uncovered the truth.
The museum that opened in 1993 is superb and allows the visitor to view the façades of the tombs in their original place and orientation. Elsewhere in the cavernous enclosure are well-labeled displays exhibiting finds and treasures from the site including a beautiful mural, a gold sarcophagus and miniature ivory heads
