Museum of Byzantine Culture. And once again, due to the Feast of the Assumption, we were alone in the place. We spent several hours in the permanent collection and I was making my friend a bit crazy by poring over the clothing and making color sketches. This came to an end when I was approached by a docent who said "why don't you just take pictures?". This was so unexpected I though I misheard and asked the curator who had just come in the room if that was really okay. (Usually you get chased out for even having a camera!)She said "just no flash.", so out came the camera. There's a good overall photo of an seventh century tunic here and I also have close-ups!
I confess to having been a bit excited by the opportunity and the photo of the rondel shows how my hands were shaking. At that point my friend said "she's very interested in history" and the docent thought that was very unusal, but good. We finished viewing the permanent collection and went on to the temporary exhibit entitled "Places and Manners of Worship," which was also very interesting. I didn't take many more photos, because I purchased a copy of the exhibit catalog Byzantine Hours: Works and Days in Byzantium, which is fifteen pounds and 600 pages of photos and text. It is a wonderful resource!
Next it was on to the Church of Ag. Georgios or the Rotunda of St. George. It was built in the reign of Galerius Caesar, and was originally either a temple to Zeus or a mausoleum for Galerius. It later became a Christian basilica, then a mosque (and the minaret is still standing), then later returned to use as a Christian church. Like the Ag. Sofiya, it has amazing chandeliers. Here they are formed of dragons, as opposed to the griffons seen at St. Sofiya.
Near the Rotunda was the Agora. While it's not as impressive as the one in Rome, It still is worth a second look. It seems the authorities are trying to reconstruct a portion of it and there are several columns in place.
It was back to the hotel for showers and a bit of rest at this point. It had been well over 102 F in the afternoon and we needed a break before dinner - not to mention that Greeks don't really start evening meals until at least 8:00 and that's early!
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