NOTICE. ANY information derived from personal knowledge of the countries described in the Handbook for Greece, and calculated to correct errors and supply deficiencies therein, is requested from all those into whose hands this volume may chance to fall. Such co-operation alone can ultimately produce a complete and perfectly accurate work. As a general rule, the pages to which the observations apply should be specified. Notices of new routes, and of improved means of communication and accommodation, will be particularly acceptable. All letters on this subject may be addressed to the Editor, care of Mr. Murray, Albemarle Street. TENOY. LIBRARY NEW YORK A HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN GREECE; DESCRIBING THE IONIAN ISLANDS; CONTINENTAL GREECE, ATHENS, THE ISLANDS OF THE ÆGEAN SEA; ALBANIA; THESSALY; AND FOURTH EDITION, REVISED, AND ENLARGED. WITH A MAP OF GREECE, PLANS, AND VIEWS. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. PARIS: GALIGNANI; XAVIER AND BOYVEAU. CORFU: TAYLOR. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. THE subject of this Handbook is CLASSICAL GREECE, in which term are included the Ionian Islands, Continental Greece, and the Peloponnesus ; the Islands of the Egean Sea which belong to the Hellenic kingdom; the Egean Islands which appertain to the Ottoman empire; two provinces of that empire which border on Greece, namely, Thessaly and Albania; and the adjoining Ottoman province of Macedonia. In all of these countries the greater part of the population is Greek in religion and language. This edition was in the first instance revised and enlarged in 1860 by Sir George Ferguson Bowen, the editor of the third edition of the Handbook, who incorporated the notes and observations of himself and other travellers through a large portion of the region described. Circumstances having prevented its appearance at that time, it was in February, 1871, placed, in its revised form, in the hands of another editor, who having been long resident in the Levant, has had opportunities of correcting every portion of the book, and of adding to it such information as was needed to render it of practical usefulness at the present day. No pains have been spared in the task of revision, but the same degree of accuracy can hardly be attained, and will not be looked for, in descriptions of the less visited regions of Greece, and the adjoining Ottoman provinces, which would be expected in a Handbook for Switzerland or Italy. The description of the greater portion of the monuments of ancient Athens, contributed to the previous edition of this work by Mr. F. C. Penrose, the well-known architect and writer on Athenian architecture, has been again inserted. Of the splendid Athenian remains laid bare by recent exploration, the Stadium has been described from the German of Herr Ernst Ziller, to whom the task of its investigation was entrusted by the King of the Hellenes; whilst the descriptions given of the Dionysiac Theatre, and of the Sepulchral Monuments on the Sacred Road to Eleusis -some of the most interesting of which have been laid bare only a few weeks are for the most part based on the Greek writings of Mr. Rousopoulos, Professor of Archæology in the University of Athens. These three scenes of classical interest are now for the first time collectively described in the English language. Several gentlemen resident in the Hellenic kingdom have lent valuable advice or assistance to the editor in the preparation of this Handbook ; more especially are his thanks due to Mr. Finlay, the historian of Roman, Mediaval, and Modern Greece. Much of the second section of the work has been revised by an American traveller, Mr. Keep, who has, in the course of the last two years, explored nearly all parts of Hellas. The quotations which will be given from various authors will be acknowledged in the proper place. Amongst the works consulted may here be specified those of the late Sir Thomas Wyse, and that of the Rev. Henry Tozer, whose recently-published Researches in the Highlands of Turkey throw so much light on " the least known of all the countries of Europe," but one which contains so much to reward the trouble of investigation. A few explanatory words may be added with reference to the form in which Greek names will appear in the following pages. A work containing quotations from many writers, all of whom may not have adhered to an uniform method of orthography, must present some anomalies. For the most part the usually received Latin form of Greek words has been made use of, but this rule has in some instances been departed from when by rendering the Greek K by the same letter in English, instead of by C, it has been possible to retain the exact Hellenic spelling, and thereby to facilitate the pronunciation of names of localities in Greece. A short catalogue of the principal objects in the national collection of Greek Antiquities at Athens is given in a Postscript at p. xi. Athens, March, 1872, ...M R. G. W. The Publisher will be greatly obliged by information of any errors or omissions which may be detected by travellers on the spot, while making use of this Handbook.. PAGE xiv 6 to face 129 143 147 158 173 190 196 199 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND PLANS. Newly excavated Street of Tombs on the road from Athens to Eleusis to face 372 at the end. |