A trip to Vergina anchient Macedonia area

Vergina is a small town in Macedonia, in the Prefecture of Imathia, which administratively belongs to the region of Central Macedonia. It is located 13 km southeast of Veria, the capital of the prefecture, and about 80 km southwest of Thessaloniki. It is believed to be located on the site of the ancient Aigai, capital of ancient Macedonia, and became world famous in 1977, when the University Excavation of Aristotle University, under the professor of archeology Manolis Andronikos and his associates, discovered the burial sites of the Macedonians. other tombs and a burial monument which, according to Andronikos’s argument, belonged to King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great. The discovery of these findings is considered by many to have confirmed the location of the ancient city of Aigai, the first capital of the Macedonian kingdom.
The Museum and the Exhibits

A large number of offerings, which are works of art or have value of works of art, came to light from the tombs, many of them made of gold, such as the famous shrine with the cremated remains of Philip II, which bears the sixteen-pointed sun (or star) -symbol of the Macedonian dynasty, the smallest shrine with the twelve-pointed star and wreaths of oak leaves and fruits.
All the finds are inside the museum, which was inaugurated in 1993 and constructed in such a way as to box the burial buildings protecting them, to highlight the exhibits and to show the re-excavated Toumba, as it was before the excavations. Inside there are four tombs and a small sanctuary, Heron. The two most important tombs, of Philip II and Alexander IV, were not looted and contained the main treasures of the museum.
The tomb of Philip II (Tomb II), which was divided into two chambers (in the main chamber were the bones of the cremated dead king and in the vestibule the bones of an cremated dead woman), contained the most valuable finds. The Doric style facade of the vaulted burial building has two friezes. A Doric with triglyphs and metopes and above it an Ionic one with a much higher height; this frieze is adorned with a mural which, despite the poor condition in which it was discovered, is considered particularly important. It is a painting about a group hunt and probably indicates the favorite occupation of the deceased who was buried there.
The slightly smaller Tomb III, attributed to Alexander the Great and in whose main chamber the bones of the cremated dead teenager were found, also yielded important finds, while a narrow frieze depicting a chariot race adorned the walls of the Tomb.
The so-called tomb of Persephone, on the walls of which was found a magnificent fresco depicting the abduction of Persephone from Hades, and the fourth tomb, which had an impressive entrance with four Doric columns and is believed to have belonged to King Antigonus II Gonatas, were found. wildly looted and did not yield significant finds, although they are also monumental works of Macedonian burial architecture.

In 1996 UNESCO announced the inclusion of the archaeological site of Aigai in the list of World Heritage Sites.