Kourion Complex (Apollo) pre 1945

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As the walls of this building run under the stairway and under preserved sections of paved floors, its plan will have to await further careful excavation, when this may be possible. The building was destroyed probably early in the Hellenistic period. How longit remained in ruins before the single temple was constructed will have to await further investigation and study. It is not likely, however, that the main temple should have remained in ruins for long. The key to the chronology of the later temple is provided by the dedicatory inscription of the South Building. This inscription informs us that the last two exedrae to be constructed in that building were completed by the emperor Trajan in the year 102 A.D, and that he dedicated these to Apollo Hylates, the traditional Apollo of the Sanctuary, and to Apollo Caesar. There was, accordingly, a cult of Apollo Caesar as early as 102, and this cult, doubtless, would have been second to none. In fact the Apollo Caesar of our inscription is mentioned before Apollo Hylates. The conclusion is almost inescapable that the west cella of Temple A was added to accomodate the new imperial cult.

As it is unlikely that any large building survived the earthquake of 76/77, the construction of the double temple should fall within the years 76-102 A.D. For an interesting reflection of this earthquake in the temple we must return again to the central wall, which, as we believe, served once as the west wall of an earlier building.

Over the course of headers and stretchers, already referred to above, there is a course of plinths which appears to have extended almost the entire length of the wall. Many of the blocks in this course project beyond the west face of the wall. Below this course, we will remember, the west face is smoothe down to the foundation course. This projection is quite irregular. As [illegible] … continues