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Samsos In Greek History

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Surely Empress Cleopatra and Anthony of course knew better when, in Roman times, they used to take prolonged holidays on Samos, “surrendering themselves over to the feasting” as Plutarch wrote. Of course Samos’ history goes back in time way before it started its course as a low-key holiday resort and a, nevertheless, year-round island destination that it is today. Essentially a continuation, from a geological point of view, of the great sierra traversing western Turkey near the Asia Minor coast, from which it is separated by the narrow Mykale Straits, a swimmable distance of 3 km, the highland of Samos – its name meant “high” in Phoenician obviously due to its craggy, volcanic mountain ridge, among the tallest in the archipelago, was already a political, economic, and naval power at times when Athens was still young. Small though it may be, but with a hefty for a Greek island surface of 476 sq. km., Samos has a formidable Libro d’ Oro list of great citizens stretching through the ages to show off among the Greek destinations: The fabled Aesop (writer of “The Boy who Cried Wolf” and other worldwide notorious fables), the hedonistic philosopher and father of atomic theory Epicurus, and Aristarchos, the first in history to …show more content…

It was the legendary birthplace of Hera, and the sprawling ruins of her ancient sanctuary, the Heraion, not just a temple to Hera, but The Temple to Hera, the center of the cult and quite possibly the first to have an enclosed, roofed sanctuary. It was Samos’ scientific genius, also affirmed by the astonishing 524 BC Evpalinos Tunnel, a spectacular feat of ancient engineering that stretches for 1034-metres underground, a vast water-conduit astonishingly constructed without the use of compasses, theodolites or even written mathematics, beginning at either end of the island and meeting perfectly in the middle, whose construction still remains a

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