SOUNIO

Cape Sounion is a promontory located 69km. away from Athens. The site is a popular day trip for tourists with a beautiful sunset over the Aegean Sea. The visitor can find here a few hotels, a camping and a little beach with two traditional tavernas.
The earliest literary reference to Sounion is in Homer’s Odyssey.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL TIPS

Archaeological finds on the site date back to 700 B.C. Herodotus tells us that in the 6th century B.C., the Athenians celebrated a quadrennial festival at Sounion.
In 413 B.C., during the Peloponnesian War against the Spartans, the Athenians fortified the site with a wall and towers. However, short afterwards, the fortress was seized by a force of rebel slaves from the silver mines in Lavrio.

TEMPLE OF POSEIDON

The original, Archaic period temple of Poseidon was built of tufa, (a variety of limestone), and was destroyed in 480 B.C. by Persian troops.
The later temple at Sounion, whose columns still stand today, was probably built in 440 B.C.
The temple is standing above the sea at a height of 60m. It is a typical hexastyle, with a front portico and six columns. Only a few columns stand today, 18 in total, all of Doric order.
Archaeological excavation, in 1906, uncovered numerous artifacts and inscriptions, as well as, a marble kouros statue and an impressive votive relief.

Opening hours: 10.00 till sunset
Admission
Full: 4 euros
Reduced: 2 euros

BYRON INSCRIPTION

The inscribed name of the poet  George Lord Byron, (1788-1824), carved into the base of one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon, possibly dates from his first visit to Greece.
Lord Byron mentions Sounion in his poem «Isles of Greece»:

«Place me on Sunium’s marbled steep,
Where nothing, save the waves and I,
May hear our mutual murmurs sweep…»

SANCTUARY OF ATHENA SOUNIAS

The sanctuary of Athena Sounias stands on a lower hill, about 400m. to the north-west of the headland. Two temples are preserved with a polygonal enclosure. The earliest small temple dates between 600-550 B.C. When the temple was destroyed by the Persians, a new larger temple was built, similar to the earlier.