THE TEMPLE

The temple of Athena Aphaia is built in the northern part of the island in a place covered with pine trees and with a view of the beautiful blue sea.It's in a very good condition. Twenty-four pillars of the temple remain, out of a total of 34.

It has been built in 490 b.c. just after the naval battle in Salamina. Pafsanias gives us more information about Aphaia from some traditions in Crete.According to those, Vritomartis was born from Zeus and Karmi and because she liked hunting very much, Goddess Artemis was fond of her.

Minoas fell in love with Virtomartis and in order to get away from him, she fell into the sea where she got tangled up in some fishermen's nets and they took her with them on their ship.

But on the ship, a sailor fell in love with Vritomartis so she was forced to fall into the sea again in order to get away from him and she managed to swim to the island.

The girl headed towards the forest of the island and the sailors watched her from the ship as she was vanishing with some kind of holy intervention and that's why they named her Aphaia from the word afandos which in greek means that someone has vanished into thin air.

When the atmosphere is clear, you can see Poseidon's temple in Sounio and the Acropolis of Athens. It is said that the 3 temples form a triangle (the holy triangle of ancient times).