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

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The block did not belong originally to this floor. It is possible that it came from the South Building and that each one of the magistrates at one time presided over one of the five exedrae. Whether constructed originally, however, as administrative offices, chapels, treasuries, guild halls, or banqueting halls (improbable in view of the name exedra) it is very likely that these five rooms housed some of the more important dedications to Apollo and served many purposes as occasion might demand.

West Propylon or Gateway.

The paved square north of the South Building was completed as we have seen, in 114 A.D. It led, our inscription tells us (see above), to the Paphos gate which in our plan (fig. 2) bears the name West Propylon, or west gateway. Presumeably the Paphos road was not far from the gate. Only pedestrians were admitted. One entered from the west through a roofed porch, carried on two Doric columns, and then passed through a doorway to an unroofed court. This gateway has at least two periods. We can see the early plinths for the two columns below the later ones. The earlier floor at one time was raised: the two upper plinths added, and a step was placed in the doorway to accommodate the new floor level.

Temple A.

The gateway brought one to the foot of Temple A, the main temple (plan fig. 2) which with its stairway measures on its built up platform 42.35 X 15.20 m. It faces south. It lacks a peripteral colonnade, or pteron. Part of the stairway is restored as the visitor will readily perceive. The stairway brings one up to the shallow paved porch. The porch, unfortunately, provides no clue as to where the porch columns, if such there were, once stood. It is a double temple with two cellas instead of the usual one. Each cella has a central nave with two side aisles which were raised