Ioannina ...more on Ioannina

The Museum, opened in 1970, has five halls, of which the first is the most important.  There you can see stone tools from the Cambridge University  excavations in the Paleolithic caves at Asprokhaliko and Kastritsa; Neolithic and Bronze Age finds; Protogeometric vases from the region of Agrinion; finds from the cemeteries of Vitsa, ranging from 9th Century Geometric to late-Classical; vases and terracotta figurines of Persephone from the Nekyomanteion of Ephyra, and other finds of great historical value.

The Lake of Ioannina, or Limni Pamvotis, a rather eutrophic one, is fed by torrents from the precipices of Mitsikeli that discharges its waters into swallow-holes.  It is 10 -11 kilometers long, averages 3 kilometers across, and ranges in depth from 9-20 meters, with shallow reedy shores.  After very wet weather, it may form one with the Lapsista marsh to the north.  The local boats are similar in design as to those on Lake Kastoria.  A boat plies to the island in the lake, on which are numerous monasteries very prettily situated amid trees and flowers.  We first visit the Monastery of the Prodhromos (St. John the Baptist), to the east of the little island village.  Its most ancient parts (13th Century) are the katholikon and the aisle.  It was restored in the 16th Century, and the 18th Century frescoes were restored in the 19th Century.  In the nearby 16th Century Monastery of Pantaleimon, Ali Pasha was killed on 17 January 1822; the bullet marks on the floor attest to his assassination.  The katholikon is in the form of a basilica.