Latest excavations at the recently rediscovered temple of Poseidon at Kleidi, Samikon, Greece, revealed that the building is larger than what archaeologists had previously assumed.
The long-lost temple of Poseidon in Peloponnese peninsula, an important religious site of the ancient Greek world, was only rediscovered in 2022, thanks to a collaborative research project between the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia and the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, under the direction of Dr. Birgitta Eder and Dr. Erofili Kolia.
Archaeologists had been searching for the location of the temple in the area’s marshlands for over a century before recent excavations could bear fruit.
Function of second room in Poseidon’s temple remains a mystery
Excavations made it apparent that the dimensions of the sanctuary are larger than the original estimate, based on the geophysical survey, had suggested.
Although the structure’s total length that the ancient Greeks dedicated to the almighty God of the Seas is still estimated at about 28 metres, its width now seems to exceed 9 metres.
Experts were able to define that the discovery is a 6th-century BC temple with two building phases.
“According to more recent evidence, it seems that this temple was a cult building within the famous sanctuary of Poseidon, which was an important religious centre of the Amphictyony of the cities of Triphylia,” the Athens Branch of the Austrian Archaeological Institute explains.
It was built in Archaic times, but seems to have been reconstructed in the second half of the 4th – early 3rd century BC, and consists of two main halls and a smaller one in the rear part.
The function of the two main rooms is still unclear, and experts believe that perhaps two deities were worshipped, or the second hall could have served as the seat of the Triphylian amphictyony.
Archaeologists puzzled by “unusual floor plan”
Research found out that when the temple was rebuilt, the tiles from the old roof were reused, as they were laid evenly as a subfloor for the new phase.
The room, which was originally interpreted as a pronaos, turned out to be one of the rooms of the cella, in which the bases of two columns of a colonnade were found on the axis of the building, belonging to the Archaic phase.
“We can assume that there were similar columns in the second room as well. In any case, the floor plan of the temple is unusual, with no precise parallel,” the archaeologists add.
As the research project continues through to 2026, funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung and the Austrian Archaeological Institute at Athens, the team of experts will look to identify more evidence of the extent and form of the sanctuary.