Photography Exhibition

Also, here was the chresmographeion, or archive, destroyed in 373 BC, which contained the lists of victors of the Pythian games.

The temple of Apollo, the most important building in the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, dominates the temenos from its central position. This is where the statues and other offerings to the god were kept, and where the cult rituals, including that of divination, took place.

Athens and Epidaurus Festival promises you magical summer nights, full of music, theatre and dance! Over the last 50 years, the Festival has hosted some of the leading lights of music - such as Mitropoulos, Callas, Rostropovich, Pavarotti, Leonidas Kavakos and Dimitris Sgouros, theatre - Rondiris, Koun, Streller, Peter Hall, Noh theatre, Bunraku puppet theatre, the Peking Opera and dance - Balanchine, Pina Bausch, Nureyev, Fonteyn, Martha Graham and Alicia Alonso.

The first temple

According to the legend, the first temple of Apollo at Delphi was made of laurel branches, the second of beeswax and feathers, and the third of bronze, while the fourth was built by the legendary architects Trofonios and Agamedes aided by Apollo himself. This was probably the stone temple destroyed by fire in 548 BC. Its replacement, built with contributions by both Greeks and non-Greeks, was completed around 510 BC by the Alkmaeonid family of Athens.

This was a Doric peristyle temple, with six columns at the end and fifteen at the sides. Stone-built and marble-clad, it was sumptuously decorated with sculptures by the famous artist Antenor.s mother Leto; the chariot of the gods occupied the centre of the scene and was framed by male and female figures. Of the west pediment, which depicted the Gigantomachy, only the figures of Athena, a fallen giant, a male figure and two horses have survived.