Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus - UNESCO World Heritage Site

Hey everyone, and welcome to World Heritage Journey. Today we're at the Sanctuary of Asclepion in Epidaurus, Greece. So we've moved about two and a half hours south of Athens, out into the Peloponnese, and here in forest-covered mountains is a health sanctuary, but one with a difference. This one has been a health sanctuary for several thousand years, and around 500 BC, when the Greek city-states were at the height of their power, it became the cradle of modern medicine. Let's have a look around. So Asclepius, in Greek mythology, was the son of Apollo, and he was considered by the ancient Greeks to be the god of medicine and of healing. Now his symbol was a serpent wrapped around a star, which is actually still the symbol used by medicine today. Now the building that I'm standing in is known as the Abaton, and this is where people would come to be cured. They were prepared ritually up the top there, and then sent down here to be put into sleep, and then they would have an encounter with the god Asclepius, and then come out, theoretically anyway, cured. And it was actually the foundation of evidence-based medicine, because the rituals they would use to prepare people for coming in here, they would change them based on what did and didn't work. It went away from being an entirely faith-based system. Now as with any good health retreat, the sanctuary here has not one, but three different bathhouses, and one of those is the ruins that are just behind me now. Now they date probably from the Roman period, because they've got that classic Roman style of a cold bath, a warm bath, and a hot bath, as well as a sauna for sweating out your problems. And it's really interesting to see that even 2,000 years later, it's just so similar to the bathhouses we have today. So the ruins behind me are known as the Catagogen, and it's essentially a hostel, or a hospice, and this is where patients, pilgrims and their companions would come and stay to recover from sickness and poor health. It dates largely from around 400 BC, though it was expanded during the Roman times, and it was in use for several centuries after that too. Now the most stunning feature of the sanctuary here is of course the theatre which you can see behind me, and it's absolutely magnificent. Now it's one of the only Greek theatres in the world which is still largely in original condition, most of them were modified by Romans who came later. And it's just incredible, it would have held around 12,000 spectators in its heyday, and the acoustics are said to be absolutely perfect. In fact, an actor on stage can strike a match, and the people in the back rows can hear it clearly. That's how good it is, which is just remarkable. Now you might wonder why there's a theatre here in a health retreat, and that's because the ancient Greeks believed that viewing of poetry and drama and music was excellent for someone's recovery from illness, and so they would come here to watch performances and speed up their recovery. Well this has been a really interesting World Heritage site this one. I'm not generally one for health spas on my holidays, but I've quite enjoyed this one, ancient as it might be. But that's it from me, thank you so much for watching. Give me a thumbs up if you liked the video, leave me a comment, let me know what you thought, hit the subscribe button to see more from the World Heritage Journey. I'll see you next time.