January 18th: The Southern Tip

A majority of these photos (all except the first one which was take at the site of the Battle of Marathon and the last taken at the nunnery) were take at the archaeological site of Sounion on the very southern tip of Greece during the tail end of our trip.  According to outside sources, the pictures I have are of the Temple of Poseidon which was built from local stone but then destroyed by the Persians in the 5th Century BC.  After the Persian defeat, the temple was rebuilt in the local marble from the quarry at Agrilez which still stands today.  At first glance, the temple may look like most of the typical ruins we have seen thus far: Doric columns, a propylaea, etc.  You will notice that the columns are made up of many round ridged disks stacked on top of one another that were probably hollow on the inside.  We have seen a lot of this.  However, this one ruin is unique because the elevated situation of the temple was exaggerated by building it on a raised platform so that the temple became a connector of the sea, sky and land.  When outside the temenos, the norther stoa hid the platform so that all could be seen were the temple columns rising to meet the sky.  The land seems to fall away from the rising columns making the sea not visible.  Beautiful.