A visit to Alexander's home town

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Today I took a day-long tour to the two capitals of the Macedonian kings. Alexander and his father lived in the new capital, Pella, down on the plain but they returned to the old capital, Aigai (surrounding the modern town of Vergina), for ceremonial occasions and to be buried. No one knows for sure where Alexander's tomb is, but by some miracle the tomb of his father, Philip, was found at Aigai undisturbed in the 70s. It yielded an amazing wealth of objects, including the golden box in which Philip's cremated remains were placed and a beautiful wreath made of gold leaf, formed into oak leaves and acorns and my favourite: Philip's greaves (bronze shin protectors) which were mismatched because of an injury to one leg. Unfortunately I can't post a photo from Aigai because this is the only Greek museum I've been to where photography was not allowed. So I'll post a photo of some of the contents of a wealthy woman's grave at Pella.

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