Cape Sounion, the southern tip of The Attica Peninsula in Greece, is the site of the stunning Temple of Poseidon built-in 440 BC on top of an earlier temple destroyed in a prior war.
Archeological finds at The Cape date from as early as 700 BC.
According to Greek Mythology, Poseidon God of the Sea, was second in importance only to Zeus, the supreme Deity. For an ocean reliant society like Ancient Greece, the God of the Sea, controller of storms and shipwrecks, was critically important to appease. This temple was the site of many ceremonies in Poseidon’s honor, often attended by entire city states, that sometimes included animal sacrifice.
The temple stands 200 feet above the sea, is rectangular in shape, and originally had 34 columns, supporting an exterior colonnade on all four sides.
A 20 foot tall statue of Poseidon stood inside the structure made of bronze and covered in gold leaf.
Lord Byron made at least two trips to The Temple, reportedly signed his name at the base, and mentioned it in his poem, The Isles of Greece:
“Place me on Sunium’s marbled steep,
Where nothing, save the waves and I,
May hear our mutual murmurs sweep;
There, swan-like, let me sing and die:”
Sounion is an upscale summer home location for Athenians, with some of the most expensive real estate in Greece, some villas reportedly worth 20 million or so euros. The town is lovely, with quiet beaches, quaint restaurants, and a variety of wonderful places to stay, that thankfully are not as expensive as the surrounding real estate.
We are home at The Holler now, and I am posting at home about places we visited on our last trip, so it is still:
Cheers to you from beautiful Cape Sounion & Poseidon’s Ancient Temple~
For more info see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounion
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Cindy, are you never at home? 🙂
Oh, I apologize. I need to clarify. I am at home now and have been for about six weeks. I will add this clarification at the end of the post. We travel about 4-5 months a year max.
Please don’t apologize! I wouldn’t dream of critizising you or in fact anyone who is travelling even all year round. (As long as these wonderful pictures are shared 🙂 ) Four/five months of traveling? I envy you! I love traveling myself and I know how much joy it brings. So travel on. Let the world be you playing ground.
I love the old temples and ruins of antiquity. Every now and then we all need a place to worship. If you’re home you probably heard of the tragic circumstances of my very best friend-RSF-LBD, and his son, occurring Tue. morning.
I don’t think I have heard but it doesn’t sound good. What happened?
I don’t want to clutter your site. Look on SD newspaper/TV websites for RSF news. The III was my best friend.
See comments in my latest post. I only mentioned it because you are from the area.
Great post! Brings back so many memories from the three years we lived in Greece. You have captured one of its marvels.
What an incredible experience that must have been! There certainly are many marvels to capture in Greece. Two trips haven’t even scratched the surface. Three years would be much better!
Yes, hard to believe now. I told some friends recently about one aspect of our life there. https://thekitchensgarden.com/2017/03/14/a-school-of-farming-sunday/ Our son was fascinated to read this, having children of his own who are close to the age he was during that experience. Our daughter has been back visiting her kindergarten teacher, Miss Ismene, more than once. One granddaughter is planning a similar trip. Travel is such a good teacher. I’m glad that you have the interest and resources. Καλό ταξίδι!
What an incredible life experience for your whole family! Once travel becomes an embedded part of your life, it is as normal as staying home. In some wonderful way, the world becomes your home. I can tell by how you write that you feel the same. <3
As usual stunning and informative. THANX!
~~dru~~
Thank you more for the appreciation!
Awww, your kindness is most appreciated! <3
I wish I could travel as much as you do. That is why I appreciate you share your pics with us.
Thank you very much! I love virtual travel too. There is no expense, no plane travel, no hassles, just traveling in your mind, which is an awesome way to go!
It’s beautiful Cindy, thank you for sharing this marvelous place. 🙂
Thank you for appreciating it Dear Ranu~ <3
I adore Greece and especially the Greek Islands – really enjoyed the photos and script – thanks Cindy x
Yes, the Greek islands are gorgeous. I have visited them twice and still have missed so much!
What a gorgeous place.
Yes. Unspoiled.
I have always wanted to go to Greece. Maybe one day….
Greece is an excellent travel deal. It is inexpensive to travel in this gorgeous place, so I hope you do go!
I love ancient sites like this. Great pictures!
I love them too, they force you to consider the transitory nature of human civilizations.
What a site! Or sight! 🙂 🙂 And so peaceful, Cindy.
Happy Saturday!
The site is a gorgeous sight! Love your play on words & all the best to you Jo~
Very beautiful picture you haver taken. 🙂 They are amazing.
Honored & humbled, thank you!
This makes me want a holiday in Greece, well a holiday anywhere 😄
Holidays in general are a very good idea! I hope you go on one soon. <3
A beautiful place!
Very much so!
frohe Pfingsten für dich
Danke & alles Gute für Sie!
Interesting history of the Temple of Poseidon there. The view of the temple from the sea side is fantastic. I am wondering what it looked like in the original shape. It must be magnificent. Nice captures of the place!
These classical temples are sprinkled all over Greece. They are simple yet visually powerful structures, that influenced all subsequent architecture, most notably the Romans.
Beautiful place.
Yes!
So lovely Cindy! And you got your steps in too 😉
I added my footstep erosion to the multitudes over the millennia!
Oh dear ….
I think it is a good thing, to see your infinitesimal place in the bigger whole, and these temples were, amazingly, built to withstand all our traffic~
In that case … 👏
<3 <3 Sometimes our meaning gets garbled when we write!
A mere 20 million euros you say? Yikes, a wee bit out out of my price range!
Just a tad out of mine too!
Beautiful!
Very pleased you enoyed!
Enjoyed traveling along with you. What a dramatic image!
You are a wonderful traveling companion Ruth! <3
Simply breathtaking Cindy. You are a temptress indeed and tease us into dusting off the passport… Greece has long been on my wish list and I am invited to visit someone in Crete so who knows what the future will bring. Bisous, Lea
Go! Greece is a magical place to visit and a travel bargain too. I would recommend off season, but then I always do. Wonderful to hear from you Lea and hope all is well with you~
Thanks Cindy. I will look into it further but there are other considerations…
Love stopping by. I learn something new every time I do!
I am happy every time I hear from you dear Rebecca. Be well! <3
Pingback: A gorgeous post by: Cindy Knoke…Poseidon’s Ancient Tempe…Cape Sounion~ — | Rethinking Life
YOu are definitely experiencing some wonderful places, Cindy.
Thankfully, the world is chock full of such!
Wow. Sounion looks beautiful to visit or live!
Yes, to both scenarios & cheers to you Brad!
Beautiful vistas – must have been something back in its day. What happened to the 20′ statue?
Love the funky yellow flowers – looks right out of Dr. Suess!
I don’t know what happened to the statue. And yes to the flowers. I took a lot of photos of them AND I found the flowers that grow wild all over The Holler growing all over here. I took photos of them, but I still can’t find anyone to identify them. I will post photos of them in a subsequent Greece post and hopefully someone from Greece will tell me what they are.
I see stuff like this, and I think “what are archaeologists/anthropologists gonna find thousands of years after this epoch in human history ends–a bunch of plastic junk? LOL. So lovely!
I think exactly the same thing! Plastic, freeway remnants, and nuclear waste will be our legacy. I also think, about all these advanced civilizations, all over the world, that disappeared into the dirt, and I wish people would realize how vulnerable and impermanent we are.
I love it that these places have lasted and still hint at the grandeur of their previous selves. Lovely photos, Cindy. Greece is first on our list when we retire 🙂
They tease us don’t they! What happened to you? Did you walk where I am walking? What was your life like? It touches us deep, helping us sense the mysterious connectivity of all human beings over time.
Exactly, Cindy. It’s hard not to sense the presence of those who walked there before.
<3
When we were staying in Athens we took a bus to Cape Sounion. It was a lovely adventure.
Leslie
I know it was because we traveled that way too! So glad you experienced it~ <3
There’s a lot of beauty in this world, especially in your eyes through your camera’s lens. Beautiful post, Cindy! ♡♡
And in your artistic mind dear friend. I think you and Georgian (sp?) should start a blogging campaign, Women over 40, anyone who wanted to participate, capturing and controlling their own images, and putting them out there in the world, showing that the true nature of beauty, is not some anorexic, airbrushed, child model, but real women who have lived and experienced. It would be incredibly powerful. I would love to take the portraits. I would love to see blogdom flooded with images of these gorgeous women, starting with your beautiful self in that amazing gown!
Impresionante Grecia! Disfruta del viaje amiga. Abrazos desde España <3
Abrazos y besos a ti mi querido amiga en la hermosa Espana! <3
Stunning pictures, stunning place, stunning ancient past. What is the plant with the big yellow pom-pom flowers at the end?
I think it might be Giant Fennel. If I had known this while I was there, I would have touched it to see if my fingers smelled like licorice!
It sort of looks fennel-ly!
It definitely does.
Great post Cindy ! With love Maxima.
Thank you and love back to you my friend~ <3
The post was like i am travelling with a tourist guide who is giving information and clicking images
at the same time.But i rather ask a question intentionally, and you are the first person i’m asking this to , Imagine you don’t have no camera or internet or any other electronic device but rather a paper or a pen and you are just feeling the beauty of such a beautiful place, then what will you be
doing? And I guess writing poetry rather than facts, am i right : )
Yes. Interesting you would know.
Lovely!
Hugs to you dear Bette~ <3
Lovely! I will enjoy your uploads, no doubt 🙂
Yay!! And cheers to you~ <3
From the poem to the photos, there is so much to enjoy about the cape! It must have been a glorious trip 🙂
This is the second time I have been in a place where Byron scratched his name. The first was at Chillon Castle. Both left a powerful impression, about how much these places moved him, and what they inspired him to write.
Hi Cindy– isn’t it amazing that the remains of that temple are still standing?? so exciting to see it… and loved the photos of the town set along the bay. Would love to spend a few days there… thanks Cindy!!
So many places to go and so much to see, ain’t it great! 😉 <3
Yes! And you’re seeing so much of it all! xo
oh well, Greece is a beautiful country. I studied the history of Greece and Cyprus 21 years ago when I was in Cyprus. It’s history did not really stay within the four walls of my brain, thanks for bringing them back for a lil while haha! I never got the chance to reach Cape-Sounion, though I have always wanted to visit. Hope one day I will.
I hear you. It seems to me, the more I travel, the more I want to see. I would love to visit Meteora for example~
yes Cindy, not only you, I have always thought of Meteora, Wish I could live on top of that big boulder rock and just watch the world go by at the bottom of my world haha! Hope one day life will take me there. “don’t plan, just make it happen” like I always say!
Yep, flow, but make reservations when you can! 😉
Makes you wonder how many cities have been built atop ancient cities, how many have been buried, and if they’ll eventually be consumed by the Earth’s core should they sink enough… If they do and if they are, there’s no telling how long humankind has existed here. Recently, archaeologists found the remains of a hammer dating to 100 million years ago, but
scientists discovered that nuclear explosions disrupt carbon dating. Seems we’ll have to consult the Akashic Records to know for sure 🙂 Beautiful as always, Cindy 💚
Cities on top of cities. It is sad to see how they rise and fall. Someday we will be buried amongst the rock with remnants our civilization, nuclear waste and weapons, plastic, freeway remnants……I wonder what our record will say about us.
Hopefully, we’ll turn it around before it’s too late, Cindy ❤
I hope so. If it was up to us we definitely would> <3 <3
Cindy, the views are breathtaking and the Temple of Poseidon is magnificent. It is hard to believe anything could survive weather, wars, and time and still exist in all its splendor for so many years. As always, I enjoyed coming along for the tour. <3
The presence of these ancient ruins seem to encourage us to reflect on ourselves and the temporal nature of entire cultures and civilizations, what we will leave when we are gone, and what this will say about us, and our culture and contributions. Think of the Egyptians, the Incas, Mayas, the Greeks, and the beauty they left to speak for them. What will we be leaving to speak for us?
I often wonder about that. I hope whatever it is shows that the majority are good, kind people who’s good qualities are reflected in what we left behind.
<3 <3
fantastic! Such a beautiful place .Great pictures.Thanks for sharing,dear Cindy.Many warm greetings to you.
Visa versa 2UX2! <3
Humbled by the beauty and history of the place. Thank you.
I am humbled by you lovely comment~
Thanks for the glimpse of another world. ~ still standing after all this time. 😀
Pretty mind-boggling isn’t it!
Definitely. Perhaps it is the reason for the English garden. One does not have to be rich to create and enjoy. 🙂
Oops my reply about English gardens went to the wrong post. I will now do a Dobby and go and iron my hands. 🙂
Laughing………
Ein grossartiger Bericht, Cindy. Oh, i like Greece very much…
Danke mein Freund. Antiken Griechenland trugen so viel in die westliche Welt. Ich denke, dass sie heute in unserer Welt enttäuscht sein könnten. Ich bin sicher.
Hi, Cindy. I’ve never been to Greece, but your photos certainly are inspiring me to go there with our Greek/American friends who have family on several islands. So many places to go! Thanks as always for your travel inspiration.
Oh my, I would not pass up the opportunity to visit friends on Greek islands! I hope you do go~
We will!
<3
Cindy, I’m glad you had a safe trip and are recuperating from your journey back home. I’m looking forward to seeing photos of the places you went. These shots of Greece are beautiful — love seeing all this clear water!!
Thank you so much for traveling with me Debbie. You make the experience so much better! <3
Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
Beautiful pictures from Cindy’s trip to Greece.
Your thoughtful generosity is so appreciated Patricia. Thank you my friend & all the best to you~ <3
The ruins are impressive, especially through your lens, Cindy. The rock used to build them is beautifully striated, not to mention the labor involved in building this ancient temple is impressive.
Thank you Lavinia. It is pretty amazing that it has been standing for almost 3000 years.