Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Car rental
Most rental offices are on Dhodhónis:
Avis
, no.
71
T
26510 46333;
Budget
, no. 109
T
26510 43901;
Tomaso
, no. 42
T
26510 66900;
National/Alamo
, no. 10 cnr
Kaliáfa 3G
T
26510 47444; and
Hertz
, no. 105
T
693 70 96
377.
Hertz
and
Avis
also have booths at the airport.
Internet
On-Line
,
on Pyrsinélla, behind the provincial
government HQ; open 24hr with cheap rates.
Post o
ce
Both the central post office (Mon-Fri
7.30am-8pm) and the secondary one (normal hours) have
long queues; take a number and wait.
The Pérama caves
Daily 9am-7pm • €6 • #8 blue city bus runs from the terminal below Platía Pýrrou to Pérama village; the caves are a 10min walk from here
Some 5km north of Ioánnina, the village of
PÉRAMA
claims to have Greece's largest
system of
caves
, extending for kilometres beneath a low hill. They were discovered
during late 1940 by locals attempting to find shelter from Italian bombing raids. The
one-hour mandatory tours of the complex are primarily in Greek (commentary
repeated in passable English) and make some effort to educate, though there are the
inevitable bawdy nicknames for various suggestively shaped formations.
Dodona: the Oracle of Zeus
Daily 8.30am-3pm, may close 6pm midsummer • €2 • Dodona is best visited with your own transport - take the Vía Egnatía west and
follow the signs (exit “Dhodhóni”). A round-trip by taxi from Ioánnina should cost about €40 per carload, including waiting time
DODONA
, 22km southwest of Ioánnina in a broad, mountain-ringed valley, comprises
the ruins and large
theatre
of the ancient
Oracle of Zeus
, Greece's first oracle, some of
the site dating back as far as four millennia.
The impressive theatre was built during the reign of King Pyrrhus (297-272 BC),
and was one of the largest in Greece, rivalled only by those at Argos and Megalopolis.
The Romans added a protective wall and a drainage channel around the orchestra as
adaptations for their blood sports. What's now visible is a meticulous late nineteenth-
century reconstruction. Almost all except the stage area is now off-limits, though it's
worth following a path around to the top of the
cavea
(seating curve) to fully savour
the glorious setting, looking across a green, silent valley to Mount Tómaros. A grand
entrance gate leads into the overgrown
acropolis
, with Hellenistic foundations up to
5m wide.
Beside the theatre, tiered against the same slope, are the foundations of a
bouleuterion
,
beyond which lie the complex ruins of the
Sanctuary of Zeus
, site of the oracle itself.
There was no temple per se until late in the fifth century BC; until then, worship had
centred upon the
sacred oak
, inside a circle of votive tripods and cauldrons. The
remains you can see today are adorned with a modern oak tree planted by a helpfully
reverent archeologist. Nearby is a useful placard detailing the entire site.
Dodona occasionally hosts
musical and ancient drama performances
on summer
weekends, though sadly since 2000 these are staged on modern wooden bleachers
rather than in the ancient theatre.
3
THE OAK TREE ORACLE
“Wintry Dodona” was mentioned by Homer, and religious activities here appear to have
begun with the first Hellenic tribes who arrived in Epirus around 1900 BC. Herodotus records
that the oracle was founded after the mythic arrival of a
peleiae
(either “dove” or “old woman”
in ancient Greek) from Egypt, said to have alighted on an oak tree. In any case, the
oak tree
was certainly central to the cult with the oracle speaking through the rustling of its leaves,
amplified by copper vessels suspended from its branches. These sounds would then be
interpreted by frenzied priestesses and/or priests, who allegedly slept on the ground and
never washed their feet.
Many
oracular inscriptions
were found when the site was first systematically dug in 1952,
demonstrating not only the oracle's lingering influence even after its eclipse by Delphi, but
also the fears and inadequacies motivating pilgrims of the era in such questions as: “Am I her
children's father?” and “Has Peistos stolen the wool from the mattress?”
