Messene

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I was looking up Messene on the Internet yesterday, an ancient Greek city in the Peloponnese known for its remarkably well-preserved ruins of civic buildings and fortifications dating from the fourth century BCE.

The polis was created by the Theban General Epaminondas to check Spartan hegemony after the Battle at Leuctra in 369, where the Spartans got the living snot beat out of them by the Theban army.

What struck my attention was how greatly the flora backgrounding this watchtower along the city walls resembles that of California. You might think that you had landed in the East Bay Hills in late April or early May.

Photo of Messene from Wiki Commons.