Those pesky Avars and Game of Thrones

Seems that we've been following the hoof beats of the Avars since Sremska Mitrova. There, in the museum we saw a river boat that had been hollowed out from a huge oak. The archeologist told us that the Avars commandeered such riverboats and tied them together to make a bridge of boats. This enabled them to move quickly across river barriers. Poor Sirmium was sacked by them. The archaeologists have identified holes in the palace floor mosaics from Avar tent pegs. How's that for bringing history to life? 

Now here in Split again we see those pesky Avars at work. This morning we visited the fortress of Klis. Described as the most important Croatian fortress in Dalmatia, Klis commands the route from the interior to costal Dalmatia. Klesia (previous name) was equally important to the Romans. When they lost it to the Avars, it was shortly thereafter that Salona was sacked by those Avars. Survivors from Salona moved into Diocletians's palace and thus began Split and eventually Croatia. To counter the Avars, Emperor Heraclius invited Croatian tribes to attack them from the north. Result: Avars are scattered to the wind and Croatians settle down and stay.

Late this afternoon we walked up Marjan Hill and from there we were able to see Fortress Klis, the site of Salona, and Diocletians's palace all in one go. It was a neat pulling together and summing up of history and our trip, thus far. Tomorrow we take the ferry, Petar Hektorovic, to Vis, formerly the Greek, Issa. As far as I know the Adriatic was too much for the Avars, they didn't make it to Vis.

This brings me to Game of Thrones. It seems that many episodes have been filmed here in Split and in Fortress Klis. Yes, there is artful camouflaging of power cables and WC signs, but one can easily see how this place is a natural for GoT. Now that I've seen the vast sub structures of the palace and Fortress Klis, I'll re-watch GoT and try to match the scenes with what we've seen here. A particularly good scene from Season 5 is Danerys running out of the dragon lair in the palace substructure. And, apparently Fortress Klis stands in for Mereen. 

A note about the pictures. None of the ones we took from Marjan hill looking inland to Fortress Klis and Salona were really clear. Instead I've used one from Fortress Klis looking out towards the sea. In this first picture the fort is in the foreground, the green in the centre middle distance is the site of Salona, and the city on the coast is Split.

This last picture is of Split from Marjan hill, the vista was so beautiful Zak suggested I use it.