Nekromanteion of Acheron

On the banks of the Acheron in Epirus, near ancient Ephyra, stood a sanctuary the Greeks counted among the doorways to Hades. Here, where the Acheron, Pyriphlegethon and Cocytus were believed to meet, the Nekromanteion drew pilgrims seeking to consult the dead, a place devoted to Hades and Persephone. Its remains span the Archaic through Roman periods, and excavation between 1976 and 2003 revealed kilns and later restoration work. Partially preserved today, the site still carries the eerie pull of a landscape the ancients imagined as the threshold of the underworld.