CAPE SOUNIO AFTERNOON TOUR

Highlights

• Beautiful views of Saronic Gulf and its islands
• Pass by some of the most expensive and highly rated areas of Athens
• Vouliagmeni area
• Passing by Hellinikon Olympic complex
• Guided tour of Poseidon temple

Description

Cape Sounion is only 45 miles (70 kilometers) from Athens, making it the perfect lazy afternoon destination. The road to Cape Sounion passing through the idyllic beaches of the Saronic Gulf – Glyfada, Vouliagmeni and Varkiza. The ancient Greeks certainly knew how to choose a temple location, as Cape Sounion is a remarkable site.

According to legend, Cape Sounion is the spot where Aegeus, king of Athens, leapt to his death off the cliff, thus giving his name to the Aegean Sea. The story goes that Aegeus, anxiously looking out from Sounion, despaired when he saw a black sail on his son Theseus’s ship, returning from Crete. This led him to believe that his son had been killed by Minotaur.

Cape Sounion is noted as the site of ruins of an ancient Greek temple of Poseidon, the god of the sea in classical mythology. The Temple of Poseidon was built in 444 BC in the plain Doric style and was erected by Pericles, during the golden age of Greece, and is said to be on top of the ruins of an earlier sea temple which may date back to Mycenaean or even Minoan times.

One of the columns has a graffiti left by English Romantic poet Lord Byron in the early 1800s.

Cape Sounion is famous for its extraordinary beauty sunset, during which the sky is painted in bright reds, oranges and yellows.  According to the legend, the wish made on the Temple at sunset will definitely come true.