Messinia - Sights

One of Greece’s most significant archaeological sites, Ancient Messene is renowned to for the impressive ruins of the fortification wall. Of the wall, some 9,5 km in extent, are well preserved on the north-northwestern side, on either side of the Arcadian Gate, the only surviving entrance gate to the ancient city. The wall was built by large rectangular limestone blocks, quired on the rocky body of Mt. Ithome and flanked by square protective towers at regular intervals. The blocks weighing tens of tonnes are placed and joined so tight that a sheet of paper won’t fit between two stones.

The wall has two main entrances, one of which being the Arcadian Gate, an enormous megalithic portal with a circular courtyard placed in between the other side of the gate. The other one is the Lakonian Gate, situated toward the direction of Ancient Sparta but unfortunately has not been survived. The defensive wall allegedly built by Epaminondas, an important military and politician from Thebes, who supervised the building of entire cities, had around 30 huge watchtowers but only eight of the towers, can still be seen scattered over the perimeter.

The Arcadian Gate is an enormous and imposing circular gate, with two entrances, one interior and one exterior. The internal entrance led to a paved road towards the Agora of the ancient city and the external to the road, which ended at the capital of Arcadia, Megalopolis. In the courtyard there are two niches on the sides, where used to stand two columns of Hermes - the god responsible for defending the gates. The traveler Pausanias visited the city between 155 and 160 B.C. and was the first to record significant information regarding the ancient city and its fortified wall.

This stone portal once guarded the ancient route to Megalopolis, now a modern road runs through the gate, however the remains of the Arcadian Gate demonstrate how strongly fortified the city was and is a rare and representative example of Hellenistic defensive architecture. The Gate is located around 800m along the road from Mavromati, past the museum and the archaeological site of Ancient Messene.