Half Day Tour to Cape Sounion
The tour will depart the hotel by air-conditioned motor coach with English – speaking guide for cape Sounion, a promontory on the southernmost tip of Attica. Here, on a windswept bluff rising above Aegean Sea, participants will find the Temple of Poseidon, one of the most impressive classical monuments to have survived to the present day. The temple was build shortly after the middle of the 5th century B.C., during the same period that saw the beginning of work on the great monuments on the Athenian Acropolis. What remains from the temple today are 13 Doric columns, standing majestically on the edge of the cliffs nearly 200 feet above the sea. Made of Parian marble, the frieze’s 13 remaining representations depict scenes form the mythical battle between the Centaurs and the Giants, as well as the exploits of Theseus. Even through today it is in ruins, it still dominates the surrounding countryside from its position on the highest point of land in the region. A bit further down participants also can see the ruins of the Temple of Athena of Sounion. As there are two roads linking Sounion with Athens, it is possible to take a different route on the return, thus seeing two entirely different facets of the Attica countryside. The old road runs through the large villages in the Mesogeia, affording a view of inland Attica, while the coast road follows the southwest coast and hugs the edge of the Aegean.