Just 300 meters away from the burial mound at Kasta Hill were the ancient tomb of Amphipolis has gathered the international spotlight lies Tomb III. The adjacent Macedonian tomb gives archaeologist a clearer idea as to how the final image of the ancient monument was but also bears a number of similarities with the ancient tomb lead archaeologist Katerina Peristeri is currently working on.

The almost-identical tomb has a pebbled mosaic with a rhombus design in its lobby that resembles the lobby that came to light in the first stage of the excavation at Amphipolis.

The burial chamber of Tomb III has a colored mosaic floor that was crushed after the initial burial, possibly in order to add another dead body to the tomb. Following this, a cist tomb was created with murals. A floral headstone design was found outside the tomb dating back from the late 4th century B.C.

The guide book – supervised by archaeologist Dimitris Lazaridis, who was the lead archaeologist at the time – states that work in the region in the Sixties revealed that this third notable Macedonian-styled grave found at Amphipolis had unfortunately been looted and partially destroyed.

Only the lower walled domes survive. These are covered with decorations of imitation marble. There is an antechamber and burial chamber wit a total length of 9 meters and is 3.07 meters in width. The floor of the pre-chamber has mosaic decorations showing rhombus designs and is divided into three zones with deep red color profiles and yellow in the middle.

The floor of the northern zone was broken in order to construct the second tomb and the original tomb is located deep in the burial chamber. Both of these cist tombs were looted. Their walls are covered in vibrant colors of red, yello, black, grey and white. Decorations bear designs of flowers, stems, birds, vases, etc. The frescoes and the mosaic were transferred to the Museum of Kavala and the newly-built Amphipolis Museum.

A large 1.08-meter headstone was excavated at the entrance of the burial chamber. Its base is decorated with a double row of acanthus leaves with sideway-slanted shoots.

Mr. Lazaridis dated Tomb III to the 3rd century B.C. but German archaeologist Dieter Salzmann, an authority on ancient mosaics, placed the tomb’s date to the last quarter of the 4th century, almost the same time when the first phase of the Kasta Tomb is believed to have been constructed.