Archaeological Site of Sparta — Attraction in Municipality of Sparta

The place is not that big! I saw everything there is to see slowly walking around taking dozens of photographs took me less than a couple of hours. You can actually walk around the whole circumference of the ruins in about 20 minutes . There is a path around and another couple of smaller paths/tracks inside the area. The whole place has olive trees growing around and in it. There is the good remains of a Roman ampitheatre ( from when Greece came under the Roman rule ) and two other much older areas of ruins. There is no tourist shop for maps so you have to do your research in advance. The place was almost deserted apart from a couple of groups of Archeologists diggers and I get the idea that there is a lot more to be uncovered as some of the ruins were obviously freshly dug! I read on Tripadvisor that that there are never many tourists there and we only saw one other couple looking around. Probably this is because it is not that well sign posted and Sparta is very much off the beaten track. One of the digs was up on raised ground with fencing barriers around BUT I managed to sneak thru and get some pics!! There are no guides around and no one incharge! The atmosphere is AWESOME. Every wall, brick,stone,Pillar,column that I touched overwhemed me with emotion and just to look into the distance and see the the Surrounding Taygetos mountains knowing that this is the VERY same view that they would have seen each day, just to walk where they walked, Leonidas, Agis. Lysyander,Archidamus, Pausanias and the great Brasidas was BEYOND any words!! I have read the thee contempory books several times ( Herodotus, The Histories. Thucycdides, The History of The Peloponnesian War. Xenophon, Helenica ) and to finally make The BUCKET trip was sooooo worth it. The ruins are not like Pompeii or Rome or the spectacular Ancient Messini ( which incidentally is AWESOME ), because as Thucydides said back in the day...If the population of Sparta suddenly deserted the city and then strangers arrived, they would not believe this was the mightiest city in all Greece. No temples, no fine statues or monuments, no grand buildings not even a city wall. .. So it is no surprise that two and a half thousand years later there aint much to see!! But the atmosphere , well that is on another level. If you are into the history then YOU MUST...

The site of ancient Sparta is a nice place to stop by if you're in the area. The site isn't as impressive as some of the others in the Peloponnese like Olympia or Epidavros, but it's free to visit so you can't really complain. Archeologists are still doing work on the site. They were working on the ancient theater when we visited.

There's free parking on a little field with some trees next to the stadium. From there, it's a short walk to the site. There's a lot of shade on the ancient site, which was very nice in the hot sun. There are also many signs that explain what you're looking at.

It's not worth taking a big detour, but if you're passing by Sparta, I recommend visiting for an hour or so. You also have a great view of the modern city of Sparta from the site, which is on a small hill. Don't forget to take a picture with the statue of Leonidas, which is in front of the stadium! Nearby, you can also...

I paid a few extra drachma to get a tour guide as I love the Spartans and what they achieved in the film "300". In fact, my first dag was actually called Leonidas, he was one of those Weiner dogs. Quite a sad story actually, my dad put a shovel through him by accident when he was mixing some cement. My dad swore to his death bed that as the shovel went in, Leonidas let out an almighty "Sparta" Bark. Anyway, I digress the tour guide was a little English lad called Ronald Bib. Ronald was dressed as a Spartan which just unfortunately extenuated his little pipe cleaner arms and golf club legs. Within minutes, I caught him looking at my misses a bit funny, so l literally had no choice, and I went at him like a windmill. As I punched his lights out I shouted, "No retreat, no surrender; that is Spartan law. And by Spartan law, we will stand and fight... and die"....