POSEIDONIAN TEMPLE

It is one of the "obliged" passages of Attica. What an impressive monument indeed that this splendid temple dedicated to Poseidon, god of the sea, oceans, springs and earthquakes! Perched like a watchtower at the southern tip of Attica, on what Homer called the "sacred rock", it occupies a grandiose site, hung on the edge of a promontory of 60 m plunging into the waves. This magnificent temple is enthroned on its rock, overlooking, to the south, the island of Makronissos behind which is hidden the island of Kea (the first of the Cyclades), and, to the west, the Saronic Gulf. At dusk, the graceful columns of the temple are enveloped in a mauve pink veil, and, seeing in the distance the boats on their way to the islands light up their lights, one feels the wandering soul.

History of the site. This very special place was already in Homer's time a sacred rock that housed two sanctuaries. One was dedicated to Poseidon and the other to Athena. These sanctuaries were already important in the sixth century BC, as evidenced by the many fragments of kouroi found and now exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum. Around 440 B.C., the tuff sanctuary of Poseidon, which had been destroyed by the Persians in 480 B.C., was replaced by a Doric peripteral temple in marble. Less than a century later, the Athenians built within the framework of the Peloponnesian war an enormous enclosure which surrounded the temple. This one was to ensure the safety of the Athenian ships loaded with wheat. Sounion was then one of the most important strongholds of Attica, it also housed a permanent garrison.

Visit of the site. On the left of the entrance of the site, while going up, one notices the vestiges of the towers of the fortress built in 412 B.C. One sees also the remainders of a granary or an arsenal. We climb up to the temple where there are two propylaea partly preserved. They show the central pillars which were initially made of tuff before being covered with marble. In the center of the staircases, one will notice the rests of a ramp for chariots. The Doric temple was made up of 6 columns in front and 13 columns on the sides. It presents several similarities with the Hephaestheion of the Agora of Athens. The sculpted friezes represented centaur fights, scenes of the gigantomachy and the exploits of Theseus. Several romantic pilgrims wanted to leave a trace of their passage in the stone, and thus we can also see engraved there among other names that of Byron.