首先我們自己去了聖托里尼島，並在島上玩了2天。 島上建築藍白相間，襯以蔚藍大海，美不勝收，是著名旅遊勝地，有興趣請看我老婆寫了一篇文章 "
世界最美角落 希臘伊亞"發表在世界周刊, 並有伊亞鎮的神話般景色，我會在下面發布更多圖片。 At first, we went to Santorini island by ourselves and spent 2 days over there. It is famous for its beauty and my wife wrote a
Chinese article on it published on World Journal with fabulous scenes of the town of Oia. Besides I will post more pictures below.
聖托里尼島(Santorini)，此前稱為Thera，是一個位於希臘大陸東南約200公里的島嶼。 大約3600年前，最猛烈的火山爆發摧毀了該島，留下了一個巨大的火山臼(caldera)和幾百米厚的火山灰（地圖1）。我們在伊亞(Oia在北部)租了一間兩居室的房子, 住宿在藍頂教堂和粉紅鐘樓下(圖2,6,16)。 從我們住宿處，我們可以觀看著名的伊亞日落(圖4,5), 遊輪上的許多遊客都來到這裡看(圖5,7,8,17, 幸運的十月中旬並沒有那麼擁擠)。 一位新娘站在屋頂上（圖3），不確定新郎是否在乎。 我們可以走下懸崖，來到Amoudi灣（圖9-11），那裡有很好的海鮮。不必要擔心在紅色的火山岩上爬坡, 你可以騎驢或告訴餐館的人要乘出租車。從這裡第二天早上，我們乘船遊覽火山臼灣(圖11-15)，一直到達聖托里尼島南端著名的白沙灘和紅海灘(圖12背景), 愛琴海(Aegean)的海水非常藍, 但靠近海岸很綠。 這次旅行持續了5個小時，午餐是船上燒烤。 Santorini, classically Thera , is an island about 200 km southeast of Greece mainland. About 3,600 years ago, the most violent volcanic eruption devastated the island and left a large caldera and a few hundred meters thick volcanic ash (map Figure1). We rented a 2-bedroom caldera house at Oia (north side) and stayed under the blue-domed church and pink bell tower (Picture2,6,16). From our staying place, we can watch the famous Oia's sunset (Picture4,5). Many tourist from the cruises come ashore to here to watch (Picture5,7,8,17, Luckily in mid-October is not that crowed). A bride stood on rooftop (Figure3), not sure the groom cared. We could walk down the cliff and get to Amoudi Bay (Picture9-11) and have very good seafood there. Don't worry about climbing back uphill on the red volcanic rocks. You can ride the donkey or tell the restaurant person to get a taxi. From here in the next morning we took a sailing tour (Picture11-15) going into the caldera, and reached all the way to the popular White Beach and Red Beach (background in Picture12) at the south end of Santorini. Aegean sea water is very blue but near the shore is very green. The tour lasted for 5 hours and lunch is on-board barbeque.
Click to see
more pictures in Santorini.
我們飛回雅典，再乘飛機到克里特(Crete)停留2天。 克里特島擁有歐洲最早的文明，第一件事我們去看伊拉克利翁(Heraklion)考古博物館。 令我驚訝的是博物館的內容，主要是米諾斯文明(Minoan)文物，是如此古老和豐富。 現在我貼一些伊拉克利翁市(克里特首府)和克諾索斯宮(Knossos)的考古遺址的圖片。We flew back to Athens and again took a plane to Crete island to stay for 2 days. Crete has European earliest civilization and first thing we went to see Heraklion Archaeological Museum. I was amazed that the museum content, mainly Minoan civilization artifacts, is so old and so rich. Now I post some pictures of Heraklion city, the capitol of Crete, and archaeological site of Knossos Palace.
克里特島的克諾索斯(Knossos)早在公元前7,000年, 就有人定居下來，是歐洲最早的城市。 到了公元前2,000年，它開始建造宮殿建築。 到了公元前1,650年，它建造了比我們所知的任何其他宮殿更宏偉，更複雜，更華麗。 主要宮殿是克諾索斯王宮（公元前2,000-1,400）, 它成為米諾斯文明（Minoan, 公元前2,700-1,450）的宗教和政治中心，這是歐洲最早的文明。宮殿的複雜性促使它成為希臘神話中, 代達羅斯為米諾斯國王建造的迷宮。 Knossos in Crete was settled as early as 7,000 BC and is the earliest city in Europe. Soon after 2,000 BC, it started palace buildings. By 1,650 BC, it had built the grander, more complex, and more flamboyant than any of the other palaces known to us. The main palace is the Palace of Knossos (2,000-1,400 BC). It became the religious and political center of the Minoan civilization (2,700–1,450 BC), which is the earliest civilization in Europe. The complexity of the palace prompted that it had been the Labyrinth built by Daedalus for King Minos in Greek mythology.
Click to see
more pictures in Knossos and City of Heraklion.
在希臘，我們前往3個地點：聖托里尼，克里特島和希臘大陸的一部分，每個地點都沒有訪問太久, 我驚訝於它們非常不同。 回到雅典，我們參加了一個團體遊覽希臘大陸6天，我很驚訝我們有一位考古學家作為導遊。希臘歷史分為新石器時代（公元前7000-3200）;米諾斯（公元前2700-1450）;邁錫尼（公元前1600-1100）;古希臘（公元前1100年至公元前146年）;羅馬時期（公元前146年 - 公元324年）。在雅典，我們參觀了著名的衛城 (495-429 BC）和Ancient Agora（公元前600年）。最令人驚嘆的是國家考古博物館, 特別是邁錫尼文明。 In Greece, we went to 3 locations: Santorini, Crete and part of Greece mainland, and each didn't visit too long. I was amazed that they are very different. Coming back to Athens, we joined a group touring the Greece mainland for 6 days and I was amazed that we had an archaeologist as a tour guide. The Greek history is divided into Neolithic (7000-3200 BC); Minoan (2700–1450 BC); Mycenaean (1600-1100 BC); Ancient Greece (1100-146 BC); Roman Period(146 BC-324 AD). In Athens, we visited the famous Acropolis (495–429 BC) and Ancient Agora (600 BC). The most amazing is National Archaeological Museum, especially the Mycenaean civilization.
我們離開雅典到科林斯運河(Corinth)，經過Nauplion到希臘神話中心的邁錫尼(Mycenae)。 然後，我們驅車前往奧林匹亞(Olympia)，這是第一屆奧運會的發源地。 在考古遺址之後，我們在考古博物館中觀看了令人驚訝的希臘藝術作品。 然後，我們開車向北，穿過科林斯海峽，經過Nafpaktos鎮前往德爾斐(Delphi)，這裡是阿波羅(Apollo)神廟遺址的所在地，也是古典世界最重要的神諭遺址，以及Tholos神廟。 We departed Athens to Corinth Canal and via Nauplion to Mycenae, the heartland of Greek mythology. Then, we drove to Olympia, birthplace of the first Olympic Games. After the archaeological site, we viewed astonishing Greek works of arts in archaeological Museum . Then, we drove north, crossing the Corinth Strait and passing the town of Nafpaktos en route to Delphi, home of the ruins of Temple of Apollo, site of the most important oracle in the classical world, and Tholos Temple.
Click to see
more pictures in our mainland tour.
我們在伊拉克利翁和國家考古博物館拍攝了許多關於米諾斯和邁錫尼文明的照片, 它們是了解世界文化（
包括遠東）的良好資源。 以下4張照片是來自聖托里尼島，克里特島和大陸（公元前1,650年至公元前1,200年）, 除了米諾斯男人是紅色，邁錫尼男人是棕色之外, 試著找出這些古人的差異。 中間圖片:圖1是Knossos跳躍公牛; 圖2是神聖公牛(Sacred bull)，是獻給神聖的犧牲品。 世界各地在一個時間點將公牛視為神聖的, 在蘇美爾人的神話中，馬杜克是Utu的公牛，在印度教中，南迪是濕婆的公牛。 希臘人認為Minotaur（希臘語為“Minos公牛”）是克諾索斯迷宮中帶公牛頭人。 他被傳說出生於女王和公牛，讓國王建造迷宮以掩蓋他家人的恥辱。 We took so many pictures in Heraklion and National Archaeological Museums on the civilizations of Minoan and Mycenaean and they are good resources to understand to the world cultures (
including far east). Below are 4 pictures from Santorini, Crete and mainland (from 1,650 to 1,200 BC). Try to figure out what are the differences of these ancient people beside the Minoan guys are red and Mycenaeans are brown. The central pictures are about bull leaping and "sacred bull", a sacrifice offering to a divine. Numerous peoples throughout the world have at one point in time honored bulls as sacred. In Sumerian mythology, Marduk is the bull of Utu, and in Hinduism, Nandi is the bull of Shiva. Greeks think Minotaur (Greek for "Bull of Minos") is a man with the head of a bull in the labyrinth of Knossos. He was fabled to be born of the Queen and a bull, bringing the king to build the labyrinth to hide his family's shame.
This is only written in Chinese: 中間圖片是宰殺牛羊祭祀天地儀式, 現場奠酒奏樂, 祭者雙手心向下是祭地神。周禮祭祀: 太牢是指一隻活全牛，只能天子祭祀時使用, 而少牢則是大夫祭祀所用，一般是指活全羊，而士紳只能使用饋食，也就是用一頭活全豬。
《孟子•梁惠王上》中載：「王坐於堂上，有牽牛而過堂下者。王見之，曰：『牛何之？』對曰：『將以釁鐘』王曰：『舍之！吾不忍其觳觫，若無罪而就死地。』對曰：『然則廢釁鐘歟？』曰：『何可廢也，以羊易之。』」以羊替牛, 這是中國古代版的「替罪羊」。 閩南語:「莫宰羊」哈!
我在下一個帖子, 只能發表部分圖片關於米諾斯和邁錫尼文明，除非有人很感興趣。 I will feature partial pictures of Minoan (Heraklion Archaeological Museum) and Mycenaean (National Archaeological Museum) civilizations in next post.
在過去的幾年裡，基因檢測的進步改變了我們看待早期人類歷史和文明。現在英文維基百科，都有加這些資料，只是中文維基完全沒有。 誰是古埃及人或希臘人，比以前更清楚了。 在地中海附近，人們基因相當古老，並沒有因入侵者而改變太多。 北非人大多阿拉伯化，但在基因上他們不是阿拉伯人。 In the past few years, the advance of genetic testing changes our way to look at early history and civilization. When we traveled, we often wondered who the ancient Egyptians or Greeks were. Around Mediterranean, people are pretty ancient and not changed too much genetically by invaders. North Africans are mostly arabicized, but genetically they are hardly Arabs.
