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The temple of Poseidon was constructed in approx. 440 B.C., over the ruins of a temple dating from the Archaic Period. It is perched above the sea at a height of almost 70 m. The design of the temple is a typical hexastyle i.e. it had a front portico with 6 columns. Only some columns of the Sounion temple stand today, but intact it would have closely resembled the contemporary and well-preserved Temple of Hephaestus beneath the Acropolis, which may have been designed by the same architect.
As with many Greek temples, the Poseidon building was rectangular, with a colonnade on all four sides. The total number of original columns was 36: 18 columns still stand today. The columns are of the Doric Order. They were made of locally-quarried white marble. They were 6.10 m (20 ft) high, with a diameter of 1 m (3.1 ft) at the base and 79cm (31 inches) at the top.
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Original image by Frank van Mierlo. Uploaded by Jan van der Crabben, published on 26 April 2012. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
Related Images
Temple of Poseidon, Sounion, Greece
Columns, Sounion Temple of Poseidon
The Temple of Poseidon, Sounion
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Zeus or Poseidon from Cape Artemisium
Cite This Work
APA Style
Mierlo, F. v. (2012, April 26). Temple of Poseidon at Sounion. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/250/temple-of-poseidon-at-sounion/
Chicago Style
Mierlo, Frank van. "Temple of Poseidon at Sounion." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified April 26, 2012. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/250/temple-of-poseidon-at-sounion/.
MLA Style
Mierlo, Frank van. "Temple of Poseidon at Sounion." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 26 Apr 2012. Web. 21 Dec 2024.
