Kourion Complex (Apollo) post 1945 (1 of 2)

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complex. The last room on the right seems to have served as a vestibule to the house of some important official or priest of the sanctuary. This room, or vestibule, leads to an unroofed enclosed court. The house with its north porch supported on two columns in antis faces the court. To the east, across a narrow alley, in antis is another important house. A section of wall has been restored here with portions of two windows. The holes in the stone frames were for a grille. A door jamb capital (now on one of the lower jamb blocks) and the cornice block which stood over the entrance (now in the alley opposite the doorway) are similar in style to corresponding blocks from the South Building. We have some evidence to assume, therefore, that this building complex dates to the same period of reconstruction after the earthquake of 76-77 A.D. As we continue up the street we have on our left a floor consisting of re-used marble tiles, while opposite, on our left, is the Archaic Precinct. At the end of the street we come to the stairway to a small temple.

The temple of Apollo Hylates

This building has two distinct periods. The earlier temple stood before the earthquake of 76-77 A.D. It was probably after the earthquake that the large stairway, a popular feature in the days of the Roman Empire, was added. The original doorway, well below the level of the top of the later stairway, was filled in; and the floor level was raised to accomodate the new stairway. Behind the shallow porch at the head of the stairway, which probably rested on columns, there is the usual pro-naos and naos. An inscribed block of stone found at the top of the stairway bears what is most probably part of the dedicatory inscription of the later temple. It can be restored to read "The City of the Kourions