Vergina

If I shall cross into Macedonia, imagining myself to be one of Alexander’s the Great famous cavalrymen.

Vergina is his birthplace and the great Macedonian’s dynasty and is not the place someone will visit but of course is the place that someone must be visiting as the site containing the tombs of Philip II and other members of the great Macedonian dynasty and it is a Unesco World Heritage Monument and one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.
The ancient site of Aigai (or ‘goats’), the curiously named first capital of the kingdom of Macedon, lies on the southwest edge of the plain of Macedonia in northern Greece, in the foothills of Mt Pieria.

Although there are open-air ruins, you have come here to see the extraordinary subterranean museum of Vergina & the tombs of Philip II (father of Alexander the Great) and other family members of the great Macedonian dynasty.

You enter the raised mound, or tumulus, through an ominously dark passage, leaving daylight behind and emerging in an open circular space illuminating some of the most extraordinary finds ever discovered.

You feel a bit like archaeologist Manolis Andronikos when he unearthed treasures emblazoned with the golden star of Macedon and knew he had stumbled upon the untouched tomb of Philip II, who’s bones are well kept in the gold larnax one of the most important exhibits of the museum.

Discover the mystical symbolism contained in the rays of the Vergina Sun, depicted on Philip’II’s golden larnax. There are 16 rays in all.

Four of them represent the natural elements – air, fire, earth and water – and the remaining dozen are the 12 Olympian gods.