Sounion

Cape Sounion forms the southernmost tip of Attica, about 70 kilometers southeast of Athens, dropping 60 meters straight into the Aegean. Fifteen surviving white marble columns of the Temple of Poseidon rise from the rocky plateau, built around 444 BCE in the era of Pericles from stone quarried at nearby Agrilesa. Homer already mentions sacred Sounion in the Odyssey. One column bears the signature carved by Lord Byron in 1810. In antiquity Attic sailors sacrificed to the sea god here before passing through the narrow strait. Today most visitors come at sunset, when the columns glow red and the view across the Cyclades and the Peloponnese reaches its widest. A bus along the coastal Apollo Riviera leads directly from Athens to the site.