Personal travel impressions in stories and pictures from Aphaia Temple, Aegina, Greece. Click on the pictures to enlarge, send as a free e-card, or download for personal use. You can locate Aphaia Temple and navigate the world using Google Earth
Locate Aphaia Temple on map
N 37° 45.204 E 23° 32.046
Book a hotel near Aphaia Temple, Aegina, Greece with low prices for all kinds of hotels - without reservation fees
Book a budget room in one of the youth hostels in Greece
Order your free brochure with offers for travelling to Greece
Panathinaiko Stadium
Poros
Hydra
Marathon
Athens Monasteries
Acropolis
Childhood Greece
Visited: August 2005
These pictures have been tagged with the following tags (clicking on the tag will take you to all pictures on this site with that tag)
Search pages at Traveladventures.org
You can travel the world using images - select your preferred language below:
If you want to be updated regularly about new stories and pictures:
Click your way around Greece with pictures (needs Google Earth software)
Explore Greece and the world through flags, maps, money, and images; compare Greece to any other and test your knowledge at Visual Geography Greece
It is possible to advertise on this travel site. Travel advertisers, ask for more information!
Will the current economic crisis affect your travel plans?
View Results If you have any travel related question which you would like to ask our public, please write to us!
Arriving in the village of Aegina by boat, I wanted to go right away to the temple of Aphaia. Since the bus would not leave any time soon, and bicycles were ridiculously expensive to rent, I took a taxi. The driver took me over a winding road to the northeastern side of the island, where I saw the temple on top of a hill completely covered by pine trees. I first called at the small museum which offered some clear explanations and has reconstructions of part of the temple. I also learned that this site has had a religious function since around 1300BCE, when a female, fertile deity was worshipped. Then, I headed to the temple itself.
Aphaia was a goddess only known to Aegina, and her origins lie in Crete, where she was known as Britomartis. She escaped her admirer Minos and emerged from the sea on Aegina, according to myth. The temple that still stands today, is actually the third version, and was built around 500BCE. The previous one had been burned, but some remains can still be seen. Most of the temple is built using local limestone, but some parts, notably the sculptures of the pediment, are made of Parian marble. They depict the battle of Troy, and Athena has a central role in them. That is why originally the temple was thought to be in her honour.
Unfortunately, as is often the case, the remains of the pedimental sculptures of Aphaia temple were taken away, some to Munich others to Athens. Walking around the temple, looking up at the columns and even seeing some paint in some parts, inevitably makes you wonder how it all looked like some 2500 years ago. For sure, the sun was there, the singing of the cicadas, as was the superb view over the sea and surrouding lands. The view of former arch rival Athens must have been radically different in those times. 
