| name: |
Pella
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| location: |
Pella prefecture (Nomos), capital Edhessa.
The site of ancient Pella and the archaeological museum are about 1 km west of the modern village of Nea Pella on, the E86 road between Thessalonica (35 km)and Edhessa (38 km).
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| local time: |
Eastern European Time (EET)
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| currency: |
Euro
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| climate: |
Mediterranean
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Along the E86 highway between Thessalonika and Gianitza and all stations to Edhessa, among the fields of the plain, you could easily drive by what's left of Pella without noticing.
To your left a bus top, an agricultural side road and an unprepossessing one-storey building. To the right a small-but-friendly cafe, a road to Nea Pella, and a few columns. Oh hey, columns! Hey, wake up, columns! there! Whoosh! Already gone. Turn back and try again.
First refresh yourself after your journey in the cafe. Linger over your guide book and your coffee. If you are brave enough, ask the people who work or hang out at the cafe. They are friendly and proud of their history. They won't bother you, but if you want, they'll tell you lots of stuff. Worth the journey in itself.
That unprepossessing one-storey building is actually Pella Archaeological Museum. It started life as a pavilion for visitors and evolved into a museum. In 1988 the entire exhibition was redesigned, and a very good job they made of it. It's a small building, so the way the space has been utilized, and the display and lighting of the artifacts is even more impressive.
As you would expect, there are gold and silver coins, ceramics, statues and an obligatory head of Alexander the Great. There are some exquisite objects made with admirable skill, but what are even more extraordinary are the large floor mosaics, which have been restored and hung from the walls. Dating from the 4th century BC, they are made from thousands of naturally coloured pebbles.
One wonders who had the job of grading all these pebbles according to size and colour? Was it a specialist task, or a chore given to apprentices, or just something mosaic artists did during the off-season?
There's probably a professor somewhere toiling away on just this burning question, and planning to publish a three-volume masterpiece titled "Mosaic Pebble-Sorters of the Hellenistic Period". Should sell like like hot cakes.
Anyway, their colouring is very subtle, their compostion dynamic and their content literally spectacular. Stills from an action movie yet to be made. Small rectangular pieces of terracotta and lead have been used for some of the details such as hair. The precious stones which formed the eyes of figures, such as "Dionysos riding a panther", have been looted at some point in history.
The exhibition is also well labelled and there are information displays on the walls with maps, illustrations and explanatory text providing historical overviews.
If you can't take all this in, don't worry, get out there and explore the site. It's just across the road.
Remember. this is a dream city, so you are allowed to dream too. Imagine it was quite small by modern standards, with fabulous buildings gleaming with marble, bronze and gold.
You need lots of imagination to see how Alexander, as a child, may have eaten his breakfast here, walked along this street to greet his father Philip, already at his affairs of state ("no time for breakfast, I'm off"), kiss his papa good morning ("that's my boy") and join his classmates in a class taught by Prof. Aristotle. "Is the earth a disc, or a polyhedron or what?" And so on.
It is possible to make out the outlines of private houses, the royal palace, a large public building, the agora (home to the market and craft workshops) and the streets in between. There are still a few large floor mosaics in situ, and a group of Ionic columns mark a portico.
That's about it really, apart form the surrounding landscape of the plain which is remarkably unremarkable, especially when compared to other more dramatic locations in Macedonia. Must have been more picturesque when water lapped the long-gone shoreline.
Oh yes, and there's the city's modern day inhabitants. They are small, sand-coloured rodents, similar to prairie-dogs, who live underground. Now and again you may see one pop its head out of a hole take a quick look around and disappear again.
I didn't manage to photograph one - they were just too fast for me. If anyone can tell me what they are I would be very grateful.
I imagine them gathering on summer evening. a young one is very excited. "Did you see those giant monsters with red peeling skin and knobbly knees? They were here again today, a whole herd of them, making their 'click,click' noises and mooing "Gee, georgous', or something like that."
"Oh them," retorts an elder, "They're known scientifically as touristus terribulus. Harmless really, but stay out of the way of their huge feet. Bloody great clod-hoppers. And for Dionysos' sake, lad, don't go staring into their bloody headlights tonight or your mother will give you Hades."
Text, maps and photos: © David John 2004 - 2010
map of Macedonia and the North Aegean Sea
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Some of the information and photos in this guide to Greece originally appeared in 2004-2005 on davidjohnberlin.com.
page 2: history of Pella >
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