Serres, Macedonia, Greece – The government intends to bring forward the deadlines for completing work on the Kasta Tomb in Amphipolis, Serres so that the site might be ready to receive visitors from early 2022, Culture Minister Lina Mendoni announced on Saturday.

During a tour of the site with Central Macedonia Governor Apostolos Tzitzikostas, she noted that it could be prepared to receive small specialist groups of 5-6 visitors at a time, though not the general public.

After the Central Archaeological Council (KAS) unanimously approved the study for restoring the tomb and its surroundings on December 17, Mendoni noted that the first phase of the work can be completed six months earlier than the original deadline, in June 2021 instead of 2022.

She also underlined her determination to work tirelessly to ensure that the deadlines can be brought forward, saying that everything was ready for the work to continue without obstruction after the completion of the first phase and until the end of the 2023 programme period.

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Asked when the monument might be opened for visits by the general public, Mendoni said that much needed to be done and pointed out that it had taken 20 years for the tomb of Philip in Vergina to open to the public, though modern means made it possible to do this more quickly for Amphipolis.

Architect Michalis Lefantzis, who showed the minister and the regional governor around the site, noted that 330 large slabs of marble that were structural elements of the enclosure around the Kasta Tomb had been transferred there from the site of the Lion of Amphipolis, where they had been stacked, in the last two weeks. The slabs have now been placed next to each other like pieces in a jigsaw, waiting for their precise position in the original structure of the enclosure to be discovered.

After a meeting with staff, the minister was optimistic about the rate of progress in the work but asked the staff to resume the stalled search for a university to examine the bones found on the site.