Greece Escorted Tours

Greece escorted tours keep a group together under one tour director, on the mainland and on Greek islands. Subjects reach from the walls, churches and Yeni Mosque of Thessaloniki to Giannitsa, Edessa and Katerini in Macedonia. Central Greece adds Tithorea and the Mornos river, and Epirus adds Preveza and Igoumenitsa. Related trips include Greece tour packages, a classical Greece tour and Greece tours for seniors. A wider choice waits on the Greece tours page.

Bookings made through the GetYourGuide widgets on this page earn Classical Greece Tours a commission, at no extra cost to the traveller.

What are Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours are group trips across Greece led by a tour director. That director looks after every service from the opening day to the final one. The travellers move as one group between chosen destinations, with a single host.

An escorted tour differs from a trip in which the tourist travels outside any organised group. Greece escorted tours belong to the first kind. Escorted tours commonly travel by motor coach, a large bus made for touring. These coaches are bigger than regular public buses. They run on 2 to 4 axles, the bars that hold the wheels.

A tour bus service counts as an escorted tour, and at times as a package holiday. A package holiday joins transport and accommodation, which a tour operator advertises and sells as one product. Selling the two together is a form of product bundling, where separate items go out as a set.

Combination trips are a recent kind of package, linking multiple destinations on one bundled itinerary. An itinerary is a planned list of places. Dynamic packaging works the other way round. Consumers build their own mix of flights, rooms and a rental car. Greece escorted tours keep the older model, a ready plan shared by a whole group.

• Luggage: Tour coaches hold bags in a compartment in the underbelly, with racks overhead for hand luggage.
• Access: Wheelchair lifts and kneeling suspension, which lowers the bus, give easier access to elderly riders.
• Seats: Tour coaches carry padded seats that face forward, in fabric or leather, and recline.

Package holidays made a comeback in 2009, after a run of holiday and flight companies went bust. Customers wanted greater financial security. Greece escorted tours belong to this wider family of organised travel across the Greek mainland and the islands.

What do the Walls of Thessaloniki add to Greece escorted tours of the north?

Greece escorted tours of Macedonia gain a defensive story from the Walls of Thessaloniki. In the Middle Ages, this ring ran 4 kilometres around the city. Builders raised the walls that stand today in the early Byzantine period, around 390.

Thessaloniki had defences from its early years as Cassander’s new city, in the 3rd century BC. For Greece escorted tours, the Roman conquest came in 167 BC. Roman peace followed, and the defences lost their strength. Around the mid-point of the 1st century, the old circuit lay ruined. A circuit here means a full ring of walls.

In the 3rd century, the threat came from the Goths. New defences went up, reusing material from earlier buildings. Thanks to them, Thessaloniki beat back Gothic raids in 254 and 268. Its Roman wall measured 1.65 m in thickness and had square towers. For Greece escorted tours, the main street inside bore the name Leoforos or Mesi.

The street linked two gates. The Golden Gate faced west, and the Cassandreot Gate faced east. Early in the 4th century, Galerius and Constantine the Great came through the city and reinforced its walls. Late in that century, builders set an outer wall beyond the first one. This outer wall carried triangular projections, parts that jut outward.

• Building method: Courses of cut stone alternate with bands of brick, a late Roman way of building.
• Acropolis: The northern walls meet the city’s acropolis, its high citadel, which had separate defences.
• Sea side: After the city fell to an attack from the sea in 904, its sea walls grew stronger.

In 1988 the walls entered the UNESCO World Heritage List. In the late 19th century, Ottoman authorities reshaped the urban fabric, the pattern of streets and buildings. For Greece escorted tours of the north, that work removed the whole seaward section.

Why does the Red Church of Panagia Chalkeon matter to Greece escorted tours of Thessaloniki?

Greece escorted tours of Thessaloniki gain an 11th-century chapter from the Church of Panagia Chalkeon. This Byzantine-era Greek Orthodox church has a name meaning the Virgin of the Copper-smiths. It recalls the quarter long held by the city’s coppersmiths.

For Greece escorted tours, the inscription above the west entrance names the founder. It records that Christopher built the church in 1028. The text calls him the governor of Lagouvardia. His wife, one son and two daughters shared in the founding. The church stands at Dikastirion Square, where the Via Egnatia crosses Aristotelous Avenue.

The Ottoman Turks took the city in 1430, and the church became a mosque. Its Turkish name, Kazancilar Camii, meant the Mosque of the Cauldron-Merchants. A cauldron is a large metal pot for cooking. For Greece escorted tours, its time as a mosque lasted until Ottoman rule ended in 1912. It later became a church again.

The whole building is made of brick, which earned it the nickname Red Church. Its layout is of the cross-in-square type, with a cross inside a square outline. Four columns and three domes rise above it. The central dome is octagonal, with sixteen windows in two rows. It measures 3.8 metres across and 5.3 metres high.

• Dome art: The main dome breaks the standard Byzantine scheme of images and shows Christ’s ascension.
• Cornice: A marble cornice, a carved band, circles the church and splits its upper and lower parts.
• Repair: Restoration work took place in 1934, after the Chalkidiki earthquakes of 1932.

Its painting of the Last Supper is the earliest surviving one in the sanctuary of a Byzantine church. For Greece escorted tours of Macedonia, the apse also holds the Virgin Mary at prayer. An apse is the curved end wall, and two archangels flank her there.

Which late Byzantine art links the Church of the Holy Apostles with Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours of Thessaloniki gain late Byzantine art from the Church of the Holy Apostles. This Greek Orthodox church dates from the 14th century. It rises at the start of Olympou Street, close to the western medieval walls.

Beside it survive the remains of a column on the south side and a cistern on the north-west. A cistern is a closed store for water. Together they show that the church once sat inside a larger complex. For Greece escorted tours, that complex was a monastery, with the church as its main shrine.

Inscriptions name Nephon I, Patriarch of Constantinople in 1310–1314, as the founder. A patriarch is a senior leader of the Orthodox Church. Carbon-14 analysis, a laboratory dating method, points to a later date, around 1329. The building follows the composite, five-domed cross-in-square type. It rests on four supporting columns inside.

A narthex, or entrance hall, wraps the front in a U-shape, with small domes at each corner. The central bay is five times as tall as it is wide. Outside, the walls carry rich decoration in varied brick patterns. For Greece escorted tours of Macedonia, the frescoes on the lower levels show influence from Constantinople.

• Mosaics: These pictures of small pieces rank among the last Byzantine mosaics, and the last in Thessaloniki.
• Mosque: Around 1520 to 1530, the building passed into use as an Ottoman mosque.
• Name: The title Mosque of the Cold Water was attached to the building during the 19th century.

The Ottomans removed the gold tesserae, the small mosaic cubes, and covered the art with plaster. A minaret, a mosque tower, rose at the south-west corner. For Greece escorted tours, the building became a church again in 1912. Work to reveal the frescoes began in 1926.

How does the Yeni Mosque connect Greece escorted tours to late Ottoman Thessaloniki?

Greece escorted tours of Thessaloniki gain a late Ottoman landmark in the Yeni Mosque. Yeni Cami is Turkish for new mosque. Vitaliano Poselli, an architect from Italy, designed it in 1902. No later mosque rose in the city under Ottoman rule.

The client was the Dönmeh community of Thessaloniki. The Dönmeh were converts to Islam of Jewish descent, and they kept elements of Judaism. At that time they numbered around 10,000 to 15,000 people. For Greece escorted tours, the mosque stands in the Hamidiye district. No other mosque stood in its south-eastern district.

After the population exchange of 1923 between Greece and Turkey, the Dönmeh had to leave. They counted among the Muslim community. Next, Greek refugees from Asia Minor found shelter inside. From 1925 to 1962, it housed the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. Listed as a monument in 1938, it lost its minaret and fountain to museum space.

The building shows eclectic architecture, a free blend of styles. Baroque and Renaissance elements meet traditional Islamic forms with neoclassical touches. For Greece escorted tours of Macedonia, its higher part holds the dome and the prayer room. Its outer walls form a rectangle 23.3 metres long and 14.9 metres wide.

• Mihrab: The prayer hall holds the mihrab, a praying niche set in the wall.
• Courtyard: Marble sarcophagi, or stone coffins, and stelae, or carved slabs, lie in the courtyard.
• Angle: Built to face Mecca, the mosque sits at an angle to the streets around it.

A sundial with instructions in Ottoman Turkish still survives. In 1986 the city’s municipality took ownership of the building. It was renovated in 1997, when Thessaloniki became European Capital of Culture. For Greece escorted tours, the hall later held art exhibitions and other cultural events.

What Ottoman and ancient past does Giannitsa bring to Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours of Central Macedonia gain an old Ottoman town in Giannitsa. It is the largest urban centre of the Pella regional unit. The 2021 census counted 32,410 inhabitants there. The city lies near Mount Paiko to the north.

Giannitsa sits on the Giannitsa–Thessaloniki plain, the biggest lowland in Greece. A lowland is flat ground at a low level. Until the mid-20th century, Giannitsa Lake spread across part of this plain. People also called it Borboros, which means slime. Its drainage changed the landscape completely. For Greece escorted tours, the city lies 48 km from Thessaloniki.

In the 1380s, Gazi Evrenos re-founded the older Byzantine settlement of Vardarion. He renamed it Yenice-i Vardar, meaning New Vardar. Evrenos Bey, an Ottoman military commander, settled in the town, died there and lies buried in it. A steady flow of Muslim pilgrims followed. The city still carries the epithet, or nickname, the Mecca of the Balkans.

In antiquity, the land around Giannitsa was known as Bottiaea. At Old Market, on the southern hill of the city, lies a Neolithic settlement. Human presence there reaches back to the late 7th and early 6th millennium BC. For Greece escorted tours of Macedonia, this site ranks among the earliest Neolithic settlements on the European mainland.

• Tobacco: The tobacco of Yenidje won fame across the Ottoman Empire for its quality and scent.
• Works: Evrenos gave the town a mosque, a bathhouse and an aqueduct, a channel for water.
• Painter: The English author Edward Lear made watercolours of the city and labelled one Yenidje (Pella).

In Byzantine times, the fertile plain came to be called Campania. The form Giannitsa became official in February 1926. For Greece escorted tours of Central Macedonia, Giannitsa is also an administrative seat. It runs the municipality of Pella.

For Greece escorted tours, how did silk and Byzantine walls shape Edessa?

Greece escorted tours of Macedonia gain a regional capital in Edessa, the seat of the Pella regional unit. The ruins of ancient Edessa lie just below the modern city. Excavations there have brought the old walls and other buildings to light.

Ancient writers held that later Argead rulers moved the capital of Macedon away from Edessa. It went first to Aegae, and then to Pella. The Argeads were the royal line of Alexander the Great. Between 27 BC and 268 AD, Edessa ran its own mint, a coin workshop.

Scholars trace the Greek name Edessa to a Phrygian origin. Seleucus I Nicator later named a city in Mesopotamia Edessa, after this Macedonian town. For Greece escorted tours, Edessa grew into a centre of medieval Greek culture under the Byzantines. It was famed for its strong walls. Its bishop, Isidoros, attended the Ecumenical Council of 692.

For Greece escorted tours, Edessa became part of Greece on 18 October 1912. In 1923, large numbers of refugees reached the area from Asia Minor. A broad share of the townspeople then worked in silk production. Silk gave Edessa a high standard of living from 1922 to 1940. Since the 1970s, the economy no longer rests on industry.

• Railway: Edessa railway station stands on the line that links Thessaloniki with Bitola.
• University: The city holds departments of the University of Macedonia, which is based in Thessaloniki.
• Museums: Edessa has an Ecclesiastical Museum and a Folklore Museum, a museum of local traditions.

For Greece escorted tours of Macedonia, local tourism rests on ancient sights nearby, the waterfalls and winter sports. Edessa also keeps twin-city links with cities in two neighbouring countries. They are Pleven in Bulgaria and Bitola in North Macedonia.

In Greece escorted tours of Pieria, what does the farming city of Katerini contribute?

Greece escorted tours of Pieria gain an agricultural city in Katerini, seat of the regional unit. Katerini occupies the centre of a plain, 14 m above sea level. In 2021, 59,189 people lived within its city limits.

The origin of the name Katerini remains obscure. From the 13th century, travellers and maps record a settlement called Hatera, a possible source. A second theory points to a small chapel of Saint Catherine, east of the city. For Greece escorted tours, official Greek used Aikaterini until the early 20th century. Then the everyday form Katerini won out.

In 1806, the traveller William Martin Leake recorded 100 hearths, or households, in the town. Katerini joined Greece on 16 October 1912, as the First Balkan War went on. Greek refugees then arrived from Eastern Thrace and from Asia Minor. The population almost doubled, from 6,540 in 1920 to 10,138 in 1928.

Pieria is the area of Greece where kiwis were first grown, in 1973. The local Aktinidio Pierias belongs to the Hayward kiwi variety. It holds Protected Geographical Indication status, a mark linking a product with its home district. For Greece escorted tours of Macedonia, the Pieria farm union counts 9,000 members. Of these, 2,000 grow tobacco.

• Cattle: The Katerini Steppe Cattle, a local breed of cows, originate from the Katerini area.
• Tea: The mountain tea of Pieria goes by the local name of Tea of Olympus.
• Honey: Every October, the Fest of Honey takes place in the Municipal Park of Katerini.

Katerini lies 7 km from the sea. The ski centre of Elatochori, on Mount Pieria, sits 33.4 km away. For Greece escorted tours of Pieria, the Panigyri, an open-air market and festival, runs in August and September.

What do the ancient towers of Tithorea tell Greece escorted tours about Phocis?

Greece escorted tours of Central Greece gain deep history in Tithorea. This small place counts more than 4,000 years of human life. It sits on the flanks of Mount Parnassus, within the municipality of Amfikleia-Elateia in Phthiotis.

The ancient city rose after Xerxes’ Persian army destroyed nearby towns, Neon among them, in 480 BC. Tithorea reached its peak in the 3rd century BC, when it minted its own coins. Inscriptions from the site refer to Isis, Serapis and Anubis. Pausanias called its sanctuary of Isis the holiest in Greece.

For Greece escorted tours, Tithorea’s ancient fortification still stands inside the modern village, almost intact. Two remaining towers trace the line of the old city. Locals call one of them kastraki, meaning little castle, and it stands in the forest. Surviving walls join the two towers along the greater part of the line.

Ayios Ioannis Theologos is an early Byzantine church that holds a mosaic. The Saint Jerusalem church, known locally as Ayarsali, sits inside a cave with a spring of water. Every spring, locals hold a sprint race called the figs. For Greece escorted tours, the race ends with a pilgrimage climb up Parnassus to that church.

• Black hole: Locals call the cave of Odysseas Androutsos mavri trupa, which means black hole.
• Fortress: The Greek revolutionary Androutsos turned that cave into a fortress, and hikers still seek it out.
• Gorge: The Kachalas gorge counts among the natural sites in the area around Tithorea.

Before its modern name, Tithorea was the village of Velitsa. Velitsa was set up on 18 October 1835, inside the prefecture of Attica and Boeotia. For Greece escorted tours of Phthiotis, Tithorea counted 561 residents in 2021 and lies 156 km from Athens.

Why does the Mornos river and its reservoir figure in Greece escorted tours of Phocis?

Greece escorted tours of Phocis gain a story of water from the Mornos, a river 70 km long. Its source lies in the south-western Oiti mountains, near the village of Mavrolithari. Flowing south, it enters the Mornos Reservoir near Lefkaditi.

The reservoir is an artificial lake that stores water for Athens. The capital holds about 3.1 million people, around 30% of the population of Greece. Its dam was completed in 1979. A simple earthen embankment, a bank of piled earth, blocks the river. For Greece escorted tours, the soil of that bank is very compact.

Engineers track the dam by GPS, satellite positioning, and record a low rate of deformation. The region has high seismicity, or frequent earthquakes, so monitoring stays higher. For Greece escorted tours, high temperatures and a lack of water have shrunk the lake. The drop brought back Kallio, a village drowned when the lake was made.

The Mornos aqueduct, a channel for water, is the only conduit from the reservoir to north Attica. It covers 110 kilometres. Inside, it passes through 15 tunnels over 71 kilometres. Water still travels by gravity feed, sliding downhill on its own. It is the cheapest method and the sturdiest in a disaster.

• Valley: Beyond the reservoir, the river runs on through a deep valley with a sparse population.
• Border: The lower Mornos divides Phocis from Aetolia-Acarnania along its final stretch.
• Mouth: The river reaches the Gulf of Corinth about 3 km south-east of Nafpaktos.

The river cuts the Mornos rift valley, a trough opened by forces that pull the crust apart. This valley crosses the gap between the Parnassos and Pindus zones. For Greece escorted tours, those zones are mountain chains running north-west to south-east.

What does Preveza, on the Ambracian Gulf, add to Greece escorted tours of Epirus?

Greece escorted tours of Epirus gain a harbour town in Preveza. The Chronicle of the Morea first records its name, under the year 1292. That entry tells of Genoese allies of the Byzantine emperor raiding its port of Saint Nicholas.

One theory ties Preveza to pereosis, an ancient Greek word for passing across. In 1857, Panagiotis Aravantinos suggested an Italian root instead, prevesione. That word means provision or supply. Modern scholars see no firm ground for his view. For Greece escorted tours, a nearby town, Berenike, dates from 290 BC under King Pyrrhus.

Pyrrhus named it after his mother-in-law, Berenice I of Egypt. Digs led by Sotirios Dakaris in 1965 located it on hills by the village of Michalitsi. The modern city traces back to an Ottoman foundation of around 1486 to 1487. A second fortification followed in 1495. A fortification is a set of walls and defences.

In 1835, the Theophaneios, a new Greek school, opened, named for its sponsor Anastassios Theophanis. By 1851 it also housed a girls’ school and a secondary school. In 1863, Preveza became the seat of a province called the Sanjak of Preveze. For Greece escorted tours, Seytan Pazar keeps its old role as a trading street.

• Castle: Saint George’s Castle, one of the city’s forts, dates from the year 1718.
• Fortress: The Fortress of Pantocrator dates from the period of Ali Pasha, in 1810.
• Church: The Madonna Church of Foreigners, or Panagia ton Xenon, dates from 1780.

Ottoman-era baths linked to Ali Pasha Tepelena also remain in the city. Preveza holds a university department and a Commercial Navy Academy. For Greece escorted tours of Epirus, the Forest of Lekatsas lies in Myrsini village. Monolithi has both a beach and a forest.

Which old names and ancient walls does Igoumenitsa offer Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours of Epirus gain a major harbour city in Igoumenitsa, on the north-western coast of Greece. It ranks among the largest passenger ports of Greece. Its sea lanes connect the mainland to Italy and the Ionian Islands.

Maritime trade, transport, services, agriculture and tourism drive the local economy. Houses climb the slopes of a wooded mountain and spread out round the gulf. For Greece escorted tours, the old town was lost in 1944, during the Axis occupation. A new settlement then grew beside the new ferry terminal, through the 1950s and the 1960s.

A golden bull of Simeon Uroš, a sealed royal charter, mentioned the place in 1361. A 15th-century Greek portolan chart, a sea map for sailors, named it Igoumenitza. In Ottoman times, the town went by the name Grava. The modern name comes from the Greek word Igoumeni, meaning commander or abbot. An abbot heads a monastery.

Ancient Gitanae, near Igoumenitsa, covered 28 hectares. Its walls ran for 2,400 metres around the city and had four gates. Internal walls in the shape of a sickle split the city in half. A sickle is a curved blade. For Greece escorted tours, digs revealed a theatre for 2,500 people and two ruined temples.

• League: Members of the Epirote League, an alliance in ancient Epirus, held meetings at Gitanae.
• Tower: Its round tower on the hilltop is thought to have been a religious sanctuary.
• Rome: The Romans destroyed Gitanae in 167 BC, and the area later joined the Roman Empire.

Italians call the city Gomenizza, while Albanians call it Gumenicë. The archaeological museum is laid out in five main sections about Thesprotia. For Greece escorted tours of Epirus, Igoumenitsa is twinned with Sarandë in Albania and Velbert in Germany.

What does the castle of Bodonitsa add to Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours gain a Crusader chapter from Bodonitsa, the medieval name of Mendenitsa, a village in Phthiotis. It was the seat of a marquisate founded in 1204. That marquisate was a Frankish Crusader state, ruled by a marquess, a noble title.

Frankish here means ruled by Western European Crusaders. The state guarded the pass of Thermopylae, which joined northern and southern Greece. Its first ruler, Guy Pallavicini, also raised the castle, possibly on an ancient acropolis, or fortified hilltop. By the middle of that century, the marquess ranked among the twelve leading barons of Achaea.

In 1209 the bishop of Thermopylae moved his seat to Bodonitsa. Pirate raids had killed two successive bishops at the exposed coastal site. Greece escorted tours belong to a state where Ottoman forces besieged this castle. The siege ended on 20 June 1414, when the castle was taken and razed, or pulled down.

The ruins consist of two concentric enclosures, meaning one walled ring sits inside another. The keep, or inner stronghold, is best preserved, with walls 1.50 to 2.50 m thick. Greece escorted tours belong to a country where both rings reuse ancient blocks in their lower courses. A course is one row of stone in a wall.

• Protection: When the Catalan Company took the Duchy of Athens in 1311, Bodonitsa came under Venetian protection.
• Census: In 1507 the town had 33 households, and all of its people were Muslims.
• Charts: The castle is possibly the Vriokastro named on later portolans, which are old sea charts.

The village of Mendenitsa lies on the northern slopes of Mount Kallidromon, southeast of Thermopylae. Greece escorted tours run through a region where the Zorzi, a Venetian family, ruled this marquisate. Their rule lasted until the Ottoman Turks conquered it in 1414.

Which history does the Archaeological Museum of Thebes bring to Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours gain a museum story from Thebes, whose Archaeological Museum is devoted to the Boeotia region. Its first home rose between 1905 and 1912 at the northern edge of the Cadmea hill. The Cadmea was the ancient citadel of Thebes.

The first museum was a two-storey building with extra service rooms. During the occupation of Greece in the Second World War, it closed and served as a barracks. A barracks is a set of rooms that houses troops. After the war it did not reopen and was demolished in the 1950s.

A new single-storey building opened on the same site in 1962. Its exhibition filled four main galleries, plus the entrance hall and the garden. Displays were grouped by period and by type of object. Greece escorted tours unfold in a country where this museum closed for renovation in 2007. Renovation means repair and renewal.

Architect Michalis Souvatzidis designed the new complex, built on the same site between 2005 and 2010. The old and new buildings now surround a central atrium, an open inner court. Covered display space reaches about 1,000 square metres. Greece escorted tours belong to a land where an excavation area lies beneath this museum.

• Outdoors: A further 1,750 square metres of outdoor space displays antiquities that weather does not harm.
• Tower: A medieval tower from the Frankish walls of Thebes stands conserved inside the museum.
• Opening: The renewed museum opened on 7 June 2016, with the President of Greece present.

Nicholas II of Saint-Omer built that tower in 1278, under Frankish rule. Greece escorted tours are set in a nation where this complex also holds libraries and conservation rooms. Another 1,390 square metres of the site form semi-open space.

Why does Davleia, the old town of Daulis, matter on Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours gain an ancient town from Davleia, a modern village in Boeotia. Its name comes from Daulis, an ancient settlement. A 2011 reform of local councils placed the village within the Livadeia municipality. In Greece, a municipality is one self-governing council district.

In ancient Greece this city lay in Phocis and was called Daulis, later Daulia and Daulion. Homer mentions the city. Its name was said to come from the woody land around it. Another account links it to the nymph Daulis, daughter of the river god Cephissus. A nymph is a nature spirit in Greek myth.

In Greek mythology, Daulis was the home town of Tereus. The city was first destroyed in 480 BC, during the Greco-Persian Wars. In 198 BC the Romans took Daulis by a stratagem, which means a clever trick. Greece escorted tours move through a country where Daulia became a bishop’s seat in Late Antiquity.

Walls of the ancient acropolis, the fortified upper town, still stand above the modern village. The ruins of the church of Agios Theodoros lie inside that castle. Greece escorted tours journey through a land where an Ottoman record of 1466 called the place Tavla. It then had 150 families.

• Census: Another Ottoman census, taken in 1506, counted 220 families living in Davlia.
• Sacred War: In 346 BC, Daulis was destroyed a second time, during the Third Sacred War.
• Nunnery: The Holy Monastery of Jerusalem, a nunnery, stands a little north of Davlia.

Panagiotis Antonopoulos, a fighter in the Greek Revolution, was born in Davlia. The former municipality includes the eastern part of Mount Parnassos. Greece escorted tours cross a country where Daulia is now a titular see. That is a church title with no working diocese.

How does the mountain village of Lidoriki fit into Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours gain a mountain town from Lidoriki, a village in Phocis. It is the seat of the wider municipality of Dorida. The village stands on the western slopes of Mount Giona, above the valley of the Mornos river.

Its municipal unit covers 409.577 square kilometres, nearly one-fifth of Phocis. Such a unit forms one section of a bigger council area. Lidoriki is the centre of the mountains of Dorida. Greece escorted tours belong to a nation where this village sits above the Mornos reservoir. A dam completed in 1974 formed that reservoir.

A tunnel 16.5 km long joins Lidoriki to Amfissa and ranks as the largest tunnel in Greece. It is not a road but an aqueduct, a man-made water channel fed by the reservoir. Church lists record Lidoriki as a bishopric, or bishop’s seat, from the late 9th century.

Greece escorted tours range over a land where the Chronicle of Galaxeidi records a plague in 1054. After 1204 the village belonged to the Despotate of Epirus until 1327. Under the Catalans who followed, it formed part of the County of Salona. The Fadrique family controlled it for much of that period.

• Castle: Sources of the 14th century name a fort, called Lodorich castrum in Latin, but no trace survives.
• Conquest: Ottoman forces under Sultan Bayezid captured Lidoriki in January 1394.
• Visitor: The scholar and traveller Cyriacus of Ancona visited the village in 1448.

In 1397 Theodore Palaiologos, Despot of the Morea and a Byzantine ruler, captured the village. The Ottomans conquered it for good soon after. Greece escorted tours operate in a country where occupation forces burned Lidoriki to the ground in 1944.

Which lagoon story does Aitoliko give Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours gain an island town from Aitoliko, in Aetolia-Acarnania. Its old quarter sits on an island between two lagoons. A lagoon is sea water partly cut off from the open sea. Until the town joined Greece, it was called Anatoliko, meaning eastern.

Two bridges link the island to the mainland, one on each side. The Aitoliko Lagoon to the east covers 14 square kilometres. Greece escorted tours are outings in a country where that lagoon reaches a depth of 30 m. The Missolonghi Lagoon lies to the south and was called Lake Kynia in antiquity.

No delta in Greece is more extensive than the Achelous delta, west of Mesolonghi. A delta is flat land built from mud where a river meets the sea. Fishing is common in the lagoon, and wooden huts on stilts stand in places. The area holds 170 species of birds.

Since the 12th century, the island fortress of Anatoliko grew into a city. A fortress is a strong walled defence. In 1406 the town was sold to Carlo Tocco of Kefallinia. Venetian forces later divided the income from its salt pans and fishing waters. Greece escorted tours belong to the region where that arrangement lasted until 1430.

• Siege: In the first siege of the War of Independence, 500 Greek defenders faced 15,000 Turks.
• Fall: Turkish forces retook the town on 11 April 1826, at the same time as Mesolonghi.
• Name: The name of this lagoon town goes back to ancient times.

The town of Aitoliko lies about 20 km northwest of Messolonghi. A 2011 change in local government joined it to the wider municipality of Messolonghi. Greece escorted tours happen in a country where saltworks east of the town carry economic weight.

What legend does Patras Castle hold for Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours gain a medieval fortress from Patras Castle. It rises above the ruins of the ancient acropolis of Patras. The castle sits on a low hill of Panachaiko Mountain, about 800 m from the sea. An acropolis is a fortified hilltop citadel.

The whole castle covers an area of 22,725 square metres. Its triangular outer wall, with towers and gates, once had a moat in front. A moat is a ditch dug around a fortress. Greece escorted tours run through a country where this castle’s inner compound had a moat of its own.

After a catastrophic earthquake in 551, builders reused material from pre-Christian structures. One reused piece, a marble Roman statue, became the Patrinella of local folklore. Greece escorted tours travel through a land where legend says this statue guards Patras against disease. It is said to weep when a leading citizen dies.

During Byzantine rule, Slavs, Saracens and Normans besieged the castle, but it never fell. Saracens was a medieval name for Arab Muslims. Local belief credited Saint Andrew, the city’s patron saint, with defeating a great siege in 805 AD. In 1205 the Franks, Western Crusaders, seized it and dug a moat on all three sides.

• Repairs: Constantine Palaiologos, the future last Byzantine emperor, took the castle in 1430 and repaired its walls.
• Name: The Ottomans called the castle Balya Badra, from the Greek words for Old Patras.
• Army: The Greek Army kept using the castle until after the Second World War.

In 1973 the castle passed to the 6th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities. An ephorate is a regional office that protects ancient sites. Greece escorted tours are journeys in a country where the castle now hosts cultural events. Its theatre holds 640 seats.

Why does Salmeniko Castle stand out in the story of Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours gain a last-stand story from Salmeniko Castle, at the foot of Panachaiko mountain in Achaea. In 1461 it was the final garrison of the Byzantine Empire. It held out eight years after Constantinople fell in 1453.

A garrison means the troops stationed to defend a fort. Local French barons of the Principality of Achaea first built the castle between 1280 and 1310. Over the years a large town grew up around it. Greece escorted tours span a country where this castle topped a hill backed by the river Foinikas.

Steep cliffs on the river side meant that no walls were needed there. In 1460 the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II invaded the Peloponnese, and its castles gave in one after another. Salmeniko, led by Graitzas Palaiologos, was the last stronghold to resist. Ottoman siege guns failed to break its walls for a year.

The town surrendered only after Janissaries found and cut its water supply line. Janissaries were elite Ottoman foot soldiers. Folk tradition says residents lowered sponges on ropes to draw water from the river below. Greece escorted tours belong to the very country where Graitzas later broke out to Venetian-held Lepanto. Lepanto is the old name of Nafpaktos.

• Ending: The fall of Salmeniko marked the full submission of the Peloponnese, apart from Venetian holdings.
• Bridge: Today the castle and town lie in ruins, while a medieval bridge survives intact.
• Legend: Local tradition says a traitor killed a princess at the nearby Oria rock during the siege.

The castle was also known as Orgia or Oria, in the modern municipality of Aigialeia. Mehmed left a man named Hamouzas as governor of the Peloponnese and Thessaly. Greece escorted tours cross a land where Zaganos Pasha later replaced him and renewed the siege.

Which Mycenaean treasures does the Archaeological Museum of Chora hold for Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours gain a Bronze Age chapter from the Archaeological Museum of Chora, in Messenia. Its collections focus on the Mycenaean civilisation, above all finds from the Palace of Nestor. The Mycenaeans were Greeks of the late Bronze Age.

The Greek Archaeological Service founded the museum in 1969. It was built for finds from Carl Blegen’s dig at the Palace of Nestor. It also holds finds from Spyridon Marinatos’s work in Pylia and Trifylia, two districts of Messenia. Greece escorted tours are hosted in a land where busts of both archaeologists stand by the entrance stairs.

Large burial jars called pithoi, from the Middle Helladic period, flank the entrance. Helladic is a label for mainland Bronze Age remains. The chamber and tholos tombs at nearby Routsi were in use from 1680 to 1300 BC. A tholos tomb is built of stone in a beehive shape, round with a vaulted top.

One intact Routsi tomb held a copper sword and three copper daggers inlaid with niello. Niello is a black metal paste set into carved designs. Scholars believe that scales were placed in tombs to weigh the soul of the dead. Greece escorted tours take place where tombs at Peristeria yielded a golden diadem, or crown-like band.

• Keftiu: The term Keftiu comes from Egyptian texts, where it names the Minoans of Crete.
• Paintings: Piet de Jong painted copies of the palace wall paintings on the walls above the cases.
• Model: A model of the palace, given by a Dutch high school, stands in the second room.

Stirrup jars on display were the typical vessels for carrying fine aromatic oil. A stirrup jar is a closed jar with stirrup-shaped handles. Greece escorted tours are rooted in a land where bent tomb swords meant warriors needed them no more.

Why is Zarnata Castle part of the story behind Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours gain a frontier fort from Zarnata, in the Mani Peninsula. It is a ruined castle from the Ottoman era, the time of Turkish rule in southern Greece. A Venetian document first mentions Zarnata in the year 1278.

Zarnata later gained standing as the seat of a metropolitan bishopric, a senior church district. Historians date the castle itself from the 15th to the late 17th centuries. Venetian sources say the Turks built it to keep the rebellious Maniots in check. Maniots are the people of the Mani Peninsula.

Venetian writers judged the fort small and of little significance. Even so, its Ottoman garrison resisted stoutly in 1685, early in the Morean War. Greece escorted tours stretch across a region where, by 1701, Venetians counted Zarnata a significant fort. In 1715 the castle was abandoned without a fight.

The castle sits on an isolated hill between the villages of Kampos and Stavropigio. It controlled the passages from the coast into the interior of Mani. Its round enclosure appears to follow the traces of an older Greek fort. Greece escorted tours operate in a land where this fort lacks both a ditch and gun platforms.

• Wall: The circuit wall, of rough stone mixed with brick, still rises up to 9.1 m in places.
• Tower: A three-storey square tower about 15 m high stands at the top of the hill.
• Churches: Two churches stand on the hill, one to Saint Nicholas and one to the Life-giving Spring.

The tower complex is thought to date from the late 18th century. It served as the base of one of the four captaincies, or local chiefdoms, of Mani. Greece escorted tours are staged in a country where villagers sheltered in this castle during the 1940s.

What links the hill of Passavas to Greece escorted tours?

Greece escorted tours gain a double past from Passavas, the hill of ancient Las in Laconia. Las lay on the eastern Mani coast, by the Laconian Gulf. Its name meant a rock at the original site. The Iliad names Las in its Catalogue of Ships.

In Greek myth, the twins Castor and Pollux destroyed Las and then called themselves Lapersae. In Roman times the town had baths and a gymnasium, a place for exercise. Greece escorted tours fall within a country where Pausanias, an ancient geographer, described Las. Before its walls he saw a statue of Heracles.

A fountain called Galaco took its name from the milky colour of its water. After the Frankish conquest, the French nobleman John of Nully built a castle at Las sometime after 1218. Greece escorted tours unfold across a land where that castle took the name Passavant, or Passavas in Greek.

The name possibly comes from the war-cry Passe-Avant, French for move forward. Nully’s Barony of Passavant held four knight’s fiefs, which were lands given in return for military service. The castle fell to the Byzantines around 1263. In 1601 a Spanish fleet surprised the Ottoman garrison and sacked the town.

• Shape: The present castle is a quadrilateral, a four-sided shape, about 180 m long and 90 m wide.
• Towers: Of its three large round corner towers, only the northwestern one survives.
• Mosque: During the later Ottoman occupation, a mosque was built in the centre of the castle.

Venetians and Maniots captured the castle in 1684 and carried off its cannons. Greece escorted tours wander through a country where the Venetians then wrecked the town to stop its reuse. The castle was later abandoned and has not been inhabited since.

What do travellers ask about Greece escorted tours, and what are the answers?

The Greece escorted tours of the Peloponnese bring up questions about four of its strongholds. The Peloponnese forms the big southern peninsula of Greece. They are Rio Castle in Achaea, the Akova and Gardiki castles in Arcadia, and the town of Mouchli.

Before Greece escorted tours, what is Rio Castle?

Rio Castle stands at the north tip of the Rio peninsula in Achaea. It sits at the entrance of the Corinthian Gulf. The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II built it in 1499 above a ruined temple of Poseidon. Between 1831 and 1912 it served as a military prison, then as a civilian one.

On Greece escorted tours, what was the Barony of Akova?

Akova Castle, also called Mattegriffon, is a medieval fort in Gortynia, Arcadia. It crowns a steep hill that cannot be reached from three sides. The Barony of Akova, a leading Frankish lordship, had its centre here. Below it lie ruins of an ancient acropolis, possibly ancient Teuthis.

For Greece escorted tours, what is known about Gardiki Castle?

Gardiki Castle takes its name from a Slavic term meaning a small fort. In 1374 Francis of San Severino, viceroy of Achaea, captured the village of Gardiki. He failed to take the strongly fortified castle. A viceroy governs on behalf of a ruler. The exact site of the medieval castle is unknown.

Ahead of Greece escorted tours, what happened to the town of Mouchli?

Mouchli was a Byzantine town and castle in the Tegean plain of the Peloponnese. The word Byzantine marks the later Roman Empire of the east. In the early 14th century, after Nikli fell, the Bishopric of Morea moved there. A bishopric is the district of a bishop. Forces of Mehmed II took Mouchli in the 1460s.

Featured photo: Konstantinos Stampoulis ( el:User:Geraki ), CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.