Ancient Greece by Train

Arriving in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, Alice Roberts starts her quest into Ancient Greek life by learning about Alexander the Great and his father, Philip II, the King of Macedon. Then taking the train west, she visits a burial chamber for ancient Greek royalty and then heads south to Delphi to see the magnificent ruins of what is possibly the greatest ancient site in the world.

Alice Roberts starts this leg of her Ancient Greek adventure in the Pentili Hills in Athens. She visits the Sanctuary of Dionysus, dedicated to the god of wine. She learns that it was a night of drinking and revelry that lead to a man called Thespis, the leader of a dance troupe, to create theatre. She also discovers how this laid the foundation stones for the birth of democracy.

Alice Roberts continues her quest through Ancient Greece by visiting Corinth, where a guide called Socrates takes her on an archaeological dig. From Corinth, she travels to Piraeus where an expert called Aristotle explains why the ideas of the Ancient Greeks chime with modern generations. Then she swaps the train for a ferry as she heads to the historic island of Paros in the Cyclades.

In Paros, Alice Roberts meets an incredible archaeologist called Yannos who takes her on a tour of the ancient sites he's discovered over the past 38 years. She takes a small boat to the stunning island of Delos where the Temple of Apollo once stood, and where thousands of tourists visit each week to see the fabulous ancient remains. Then Alice leaves modern Greece behind and heads to Turkey.

On the last leg of her journey, Alice Roberts sees the spectacular city of Ephasus that has been beautifully preserved. But then she’s saddened to see an important historic rock carving, that’s recently been vandalized. She visits an old friend at the acropolis of Pergamon before putting an expert on Troy under scrutiny to test the ancient stories in Homer’s Iliad, as she completes her odyssey.