Current:Home > MarketsAfter 16-year restoration, Greece unveils palace where Alexander the Great became king -AssetTrainer
After 16-year restoration, Greece unveils palace where Alexander the Great became king
View
Date:2025-04-22 22:50:40
ANCIENT AIGAI, Greece (AP) — It was the largest building of classical Greece: the palace where Alexander the Great was proclaimed king before he launched a conquest that took him as far as modern-day Afghanistan.
The Palace of Aigai in northern Greece was fully reopened Friday following a 16-year renovation that cost more than 20 million euros ($22 million) and included financial support from the European Union.
It was built more than 2,300 years ago during the reign of Alexander’s father, Phillip II, who had transformed the kingdom of Macedonia into a dominant military power of ancient Greece. Aigai was its royal capital.
“After many years of painstaking work, we can reveal the palace … What we are doing today is an event of global importance,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at an inauguration event at the site Friday.
The palace contained column-rimmed courtyards, courts, places of worship, and spacious banquet halls, its floors decorated with patterned marble and intricate mosaics. The building covered a ground area of 15,000 sq. meters (160,000 sq feet), a little under the area covered by the U.S. Capitol building.
Shaped like two adjoining, unequally sized, square donuts, the Palace of Aigai was the administrative and spiritual center of the kingdom. The palace remains and nearby royal tombs are a United Nations World Heritage Site at the area next to the modern village of Vergina. Like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, the marble columns were resurrected by fitting pieces of stone unearthed in the ruins together with replica replacement parts.
Some 65 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of the port city of Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, Aigai drew international attention in the late 1970s during burial mound excavations in the area of rolling green hills with patches of wild poppies and daffodils.
The late Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos led the digs and discovered the royal tombs, recovering a gold casket and other gold artifacts as well as the bones widely believed to belong to Philip II. The discoveries revealed the sophistication of the ancient Macedonians, who had often been sidelined in historical accounts by attention on Athens.
Angeliki Kottaridi was still an archaeology student at university when she joined the project as a young assistant. She devoted her life’s work to the excavations and decades later became the driving force behind the new museum at Aigai, which opened a year ago, and the palace restoration.
She retired on Dec. 31 as head of the region’s archaeological service and was honored at Friday’s ceremony.
“What you discover is stones scattered in the dirt, and pieces of mosaics here and there,” Kottaridi told state television ahead of Friday’s inauguration.
“Then you have to assemble things and that’s the real joy of the researcher,” Kottariridi said. “So when people ask me what makes me happy, I tell them it’s not the moment something is revealed. It’s the moment you realize you can take the knowledge one step further.”
The renovated site will open to the public Sunday.
___
Gatopoulos reported from Athens, Kantouris reported from Thessaloniki, Greece, and Giannis Papanikos contributed from Ancient Aigai.
veryGood! (291)
Related
- 'Squid Game' without subtitles? Duolingo, Netflix encourage fans to learn Korean
- In Seattle, Real Estate Sector to ‘Green’ Its Buildings as Economic Fix-It
- Japan’s Post-Quake Solar Power Dream Alluring for Investors
- Fixing the health care worker shortage may be something Congress can agree on
- Toyota to invest $922 million to build a new paint facility at its Kentucky complex
- Shoppers Can’t Get Enough of This Sol de Janeiro Body Cream and Fragrance With 16,800+ 5-Star Reviews
- Prosecution, defense rest in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial
- 2 adults killed, baby has life-threatening injuries after converted school bus rolls down hill
- Elon Musk's skyrocketing net worth: He's the first person with over $400 billion
- Lawsuits Seeking Damages for Climate Change Face Critical Legal Challenges
Ranking
- Intel's stock did something it hasn't done since 2022
- Spinal stimulation can improve arm and hand movement years after a stroke
- For these virus-hunting scientists, the 'real gold' is what's in a mosquito's abdomen
- Fixing the health care worker shortage may be something Congress can agree on
- Jamie Foxx gets stitches after a glass is thrown at him during dinner in Beverly Hills
- Allow Zendaya and Tom Holland to Get Your Spidey Senses Tingling With Their Romantic Trip to Italy
- Americans Increasingly Say Climate Change Is Happening Now
- 14 Creepy, Kooky, Mysterious & Ooky Wednesday Gifts for Fans of the Addams Family
Recommendation
Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor
Woman arrested after allegedly shooting Pennsylvania district attorney in his office
In Iowa, Sanders and Buttigieg Approached Climate from Different Angles—and Scored
Ring the Alarm: Beyoncé Just Teased Her New Haircare Line
Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
News Round Up: FDA chocolate assessment, a powerful solar storm and fly pheromones
Fossil Fuels (Not Wildfires) Biggest Source of a Key Arctic Climate Pollutant, Study Finds
18 Bikinis With Full-Coverage Bottoms for Those Days When More Is More