ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF THE ACHÉRON NECROMANTÉION

Situated on a hill above the village of Mesopotamos and the river Acheron, this site contains the remains of an ancient sanctuary where necromancy was practiced: rituals for communicating with the dead. It was dedicated to Hades, god of the Underworld, and his wife Persephone, goddess of the Underworld. In mythology, the Acheron was considered to be an arm of the Styx, the underground river of the Underworld on which Charon transported the souls of the dead in his boat. The site was used as early as the Mycenaean period. Its heyday was between the ^4th and ^2nd centuries BC. Still surrounded by the foundations of a surrounding wall, it was destroyed by the Romans in 167 BC, transformed into an agricultural villa, then into a monastery dedicated to Saint John the Baptist in the ^18th century. The central courtyard was lined with priests' lodgings and rooms where pilgrims' offerings were stored. The heart of the sanctuary is a well-preserved vaulted crypt, where priests practiced divination in sulfur fumes, while machinery simulated the appearance of the deceased. Before witnessing this astonishing spectacle, pilgrims were locked up for several days in the darkness of an underground network and invited to consume hallucinogenic substances. The artefacts unearthed here are on display at Ioannina's Archaeological Museum. And in Mesopotamos, a number of agencies offer rafting trips down the Acheron, not in the company of Charon!