'Old Uppsala' was a parish and village as early as the 3rd Century and during the middle ages it was the largest village in the region and the seat of the Swedish kings of the Yngling dynasty, and where the Swedish general assembly was held.  Luckily for historians today the city moved about three kilometres at some point so that the old city wasn't built upon and the remains of it can be examined, and its graveyards, with there extensive mounds and royal mounds can be plundered – read excavated.  People have been buried on this spot for the last 2,000 years, in the varied manners of their times, and at once time the land surrounding the site today would have looked like an ocean of humped waves which were the 3,000 burial mounds that had accumulated.  These days only the 250 grandest remain, which include the royal mounds. 

Part of Uppsala's importance may come from stories that Odin himself used to live here.  Which could be why Sweden's main pagan temple was built here and it was the last stronghold of the Germanic kings.  As well ad the burial mounds, archaeologists have excavated a great hall on this site, which sat on a huge plateau of clay, and what could be either the remains of the great temple's foundations or those of wooden churches.  

Written by  Eric Hallum.

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