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

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were raised above the level of the portico floor. The large rooms on the east portico had a built-in stone bench at their far ends. The plan of the Southeast Building resembles that of three types of building popular in antiquity; the agora, or market place; the guild hall; and the palaestra, or small gymnaseum. The court of the palaestra was used for boxing and wrestling matches and other sports which did not require much space. The statue in the niche would suggest that our building is a palaestra and that some kind of ball game was played in the court. The large stone vessel in the northwest corner was for storing water. It was fed by a lead pipe, and there is a drain beneath it. This would have catered conveniently to the needs of the young contestants. Moreover, in rooms 1, 9 and 10 we may have the roomy recesses and seats where philosophers and rhetoricians may sit and converse and without which, the Roman writer Vetruvius tells us, no palaestra is complete. Conveniently near, too for the contestants after exercise were the Baths across the way north of the paved eastern approach to the sanctuary.

The walls and columns of the Southeast Building, as of other buildings on the site, once had a coating of lime plaster. The poor weathering quality of the stone made this essential. Much of the plaster was painted, the most popular design being that of panels with borders in red, blue and green. The building had a roof in terracotta tiles samples of which can be seen where they have been stacked in the court.

The South Building.

One can enter the South Building by climbing the stairway at the north end of the west portico. This stairway passed under

Handwritten: Kourion Mentar

Handwritten: S E Bldg