Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "SOURPI Municipal unit ALMYROS" .
ALOS (Ancient city) MAGNESSIA
ho or he Halos, Alos: Eth. Haleus. A town of Phthiotis in Thessaly, mentioned
by Homer. (Il. ii. 682.) It is described by Strabo as situated near the sea, at
the extremity of Mount Othrys, above the plain called Crocium, of which the part
around Halus was called Athamantium, from Athamas, the reputed founder of Halus.
(Strab. ix. pp. 432, 433.) Strabo also says that the river Amphrysus, on the banks
of which Apollo is said to have fed the oxen of Admetus, flowed near the walls
of Halus. Halus is likewise mentioned by a few other writers. (Herod. vii. 173;
Dem. de Fals. Leg. p. 392; Mela, ii. 3; Plin. iv. 7. s. 14.) Leake places Halus
at Kefalosi, which is situated at a short distance from the sea on a projecting
extremity of Mt. Othrys above the Crocian plain, exactly as Strabo has described.
A Hellenic citadel occupied the summit of the projecting height; and remains of
the walls are seen also on the northern slope of the hill, having short flanks
at intervals, and formed of masonry which, although massive, is not so accurately
united as we generally find it in the southern provinces of Greece. The walls
may be traced also on the descent to the south-east, and seem to have been united
at the foot of the hill to a quadrangular inclosure situated entirely in the plain,
and of which the northern side followed the course of the stream, and the western
the foot of the height. The walls of this lower inclosure are nine feet and a
half thick, are flanked with towers, and their masonry, wherever traceable, is
of the most accurate and regular kind; two or three courses of it still exist
in some places. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 336.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A city of Achaia Phthiotis, situated on the W side of the Gulf of
Pagasai, 3 km from the shore by a deep bay (modern Sourpi) which is sheltered
except from the N by Cape Zelasion (modern Halmyrou, or Perikli). The city lay
on the rough shore road which runs from the Gulf of Pagasai to the Maliac gulf
around the foot of Mt. Othrys. It controlled the S part of the fertile coastal
plain (Krokion); the part around it being called Athamantion. Halos was a seaport
(the main one?) for Thessaly in the 5th c. B.C., issued coinage in the 4th, was
taken by Philip II of Macedon in 346 B.C. and given to Pharsalos. The city issued
coinage again in the 3d c., being probably then free of Pharsalos, and was important
in the post-196 B.C. Thessalian League (Hdt. 7.173, 197; Strab. 9.432, 433; Steph.
Byz. s. v.; Dem. 19.36, 163; 11.1).
There are city walls above the coastal plain on a spur projecting
N from a N peak (Haghios Elias) of Mt. Othrys. On a peak (208 m) near the end
of the spur are the walls of a small round fort of Cyclopean masonry, 2 m thick.
Around this peak and around the end of the spur to the NE are Classical walls,
built of rectangular and trapezoidal blocks of irregular heights, preserved in
places to two courses high. There were towers irregularly spaced along the circuit.
The NE end of the circuit is missing. A wall of polygonal masonry runs N from
the circuit wall down towards the plain, and one of rectangular blocks down to
the E, but the ends of these walls cannot be seen. Leake thought they joined the
city walls on the hill with those in the plain (see below). The walls on the hill
are probably of the 4th c. B.C. No remains of buildings are visible within this
circuit.
At the N foot of the spur is a copious, brackish spring (Kephalosis).
In the plain five minutes E of the spring are city walls in the form of a rectangle,
750 x 710 m, aligned roughly N-S. The walls are of good Hellenistic masonry, double
faced and stone filled, the faces constructed of heavy, rough-faced rectangular
blocks laid in regular courses. The wall is some 3 m thick, and had 15 square
projecting towers on a side, not including the tower at every corner. The E wall
and much of the N is missing; the W and S walls are in good shape, preserved to
two to three courses high (1924). There are no gates in the W side; the S and
N sides each had a gate flanked by towers and small portals (one? in the N, two
in the S). The stream from the spring Kephalosis flows by the N wall and may be
the ancient river Amphrysos referred to by Strabo (9.433) as being in this position,
although elsewhere he says it flows through the middle of the plain (Krokion),
a position better described by the modern Platanos river. The area inside the
walls is thick with sherds, and, according to Leake, foundations of buildings.
The ruins on the hill are probably those of the Halos of the Trojan War (Il. 2.282),
taken in 346 B.C.; the walls in the plain, those of a refounding of the city,
possibly connected with Demetrios Poliorketes' activities in Thessaly.
In the plain to the NE of the acropolis, N of the Kephalosis stream,
are several tumuli. One of these was excavated in 1912 and contained burials of
the Geometric period. NE of the city, on the shore by Paralia 2 hours SE of Halmyros,
were visible, according to Vollgraff in 1906, the scanty ruins of a large building
of the Classical period within a rectangular temenos wall, apparently a temple
belonging to Halos. A brief trial excavation turned up black-glazed sherds.
T. S. Mackay, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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