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Nafplion, Peloponesia, Greece: sailing into Nafplion Nafplion is very well fortified dating back to the Bronze age. It was the capital of Greece after Greece won its liberation from the Turks. The capital moved to Athens in 1884 when the other nations gave Greece a King. Most of the fortifications date from the 15th-17th c BC. The earliest evidence of sea-faring is found in a cave in Argolis. Heinrich Schleiman called this area Mycenae. In the Byzantine era Mycenae hade many beautiful churches which the Crusaders had built around the 13th c AD. Mycenae was the home of Agamemnon. Argolis is very fertile, and is a favorite spot of Hera. Heracles was born here. Heracles became King of Tyrins. The neighboring King of Mycenae required Heracles to perform certain feats. The mountains that we can see with snow on them are the Arcadia, mountains of the Peloponese. Troy is in today’s Turkey, at the entrance to the Dardenelles. People from Mycenae have been sailing since about 9000 BC. There was a great demand for metals, which the Mycenaen ships would carry to other states. It was important to have access to the Black Sea, where many of the metals were mined. That may have been the real reason for the siege of Troy. The story is that King Agamamnon of Mycenae gathered his ships at Aulis, but there was no wind. The priests said that he had to sacrifice Iphiginea, the youngest of his daughters, in order to propitiate the winds. In the 13th c BC Agamemnon laid siege to Troy for 10 years, and finally won (although there is some doubt about the ruse of a large empty wooden ox bearing troops). Agamemnon returned from Troy and was asassinated by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover. The daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, Elektra, convinced her brother Orestes to kill their mother and her lover.