Modern Sparta, which is now the recognised capital of Laconia under the Greek monarchy, lies a little to the south of the ancient site. It is a well-built town, embosomed in gardens and orchards, with wide and regular streets. There is a museum in it containing some venerable relics, though, as yet, Laconia has not received from the excavator the attention it deserves. The scenery is so beautiful, and there are so many historic and prehistoric associations connected with the district, that a few days may be spent in Sparta with great satisfaction, provided comfortable quarters can be secured. CHAPTER VI ARGOLIS AND ITS ANTIQUITIES A peculiar interest attaches to Argolis, whether we regard it from a historical or an archæological point of view. Its legendary history carries us back to a period long anterior to the Siege of Troy--according to some chronologists to the year 1860 B.C.--while the excavations at Mycenæ and Tiryns have brought to light innumerable relics of the Homeric or, rather, of a pre-Homeric age, and have confirmed the tradition of a pre-historic connection between Argolis and Egypt. In the Argolic peninsula, which was at one time the chief seat of civilisation in Greece, there were a number of cities of great antiquity. The oldest of these was Argos, which lay (like the modern town of 10,000 inhabitants) in the south-west of the plain, about four and a half miles from the coast. In its immediate neighbourhood is the Larissa, or acropolis, a conical hill nearly 1000 feet high, which is now crowned with a mediæval citadel.