GREECE CENTRAL GREECE FOKIS DELPHI SANCTUARY

the Temple of Apollo

Below: On the left is the Great Altar of Apollo, a large rectangular structure dedicated by the people of Chios in gratitude for their deliverance from the Persians. Behind this, a ramp leads to the original entrance of the temple of Apollo.

Above right: The entrance of the temple of Apollo which is oriented in E-W-direction so that the side with the entrance faces the rising sun. On this side, the tympanon's sculptures presented Apollo and the nine muses. The other side, related to the evening and the night, displayed Dionysos and the Thyiades.

The remains that we see today belong to the temple of Apollo that was erected in 370-330 BC in Doric peripteral hexastyle: six poros columns stood at the ends and 15 on the sides. In addition there were two columns between antae at the pronaos and the opisthodomos. One of these column of the 4th century BC has been completely re-erected and five others partially. - This temple was built on the 24 x 60 m foundations of the older "Alkmeonid Temple" (advanced by the dynasty of the Alkmeonids during exile from Athens) that had been ruined by an earthquake in 373 BC.

Except for the foundations, not much is to be discerned of the interior of the temple. Nothing is left of the adyton or oracular chasm, the place where the priestess Pythia delivered the oracles. There are only descriptions of this place by Pausanias and others.