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© Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports / Archaeological Receipts Fund
Aerial photo of the Temple of Apollo
The temple of Apollo at Corinth is one of the earliest Doric temples in the Peloponnese and the Greek mainland. Built around 560 B.C.E., of local oolithic limestone on top of an imposing, rocky hill to the north of Acrocorinth, the Archaic temple was an emblem for the Greek city of Corinth, reflecting its growth and prosperity. The temple was peripteral, surrounded by a pteron of 42 monolithic, limestone columns (6x15), over 7 m. high. Its central structure was divided into three parts: an antechamber with two columns in antis (pronaos), a central oblong, rectangular room subdivided into two parts (cella), and a rear room with two columns in antis (opistodomos).

In the Roman period, when the city of Corinth was refounded by the Romans, the Temple of Apollo was renovated in order to house the cult of the Emperor. In the Byzantine era a basilica was built on the northeast part of the Temple Hill, whereas in the Ottoman period, the eastern part of the Temple was demolished and a new residence of the local Turkish Bey was built on top of its crepis. Today, although only seven standing columns of the western pteron and part of the crepis and its foundations are preserved, the monument is the emblem of the Archaeological Site of Ancient Corinth, and remains one of the few standing Archaic Greek Temples in the world.
Author
Socrates Koursoumis