Athens Tickets and Tours | GetExperience.com

Sounion is the southern tip of Attica, seventy kilometres down the coast from Athens. The temple of Poseidon stands on the headland above a cliff that falls to the sea. It was built between 444 and 440 BC.

It went up in the same decade as the Parthenon, out of different stone. The marble came from Agrileza inland, paler and coarser than Pentelic. That is why it holds the last light.

What stands on the cape

• The temple of Poseidon. Fifteen of its thirty-four Doric columns are still up, each about six metres tall.
• The fortification. Athens walled the sanctuary in 413 BC to guard the grain route from the Black Sea.
• The sanctuary of Athena. On a low hill three hundred metres northeast, built around 470 BC.
• Byron's name. Cut into the base of a column. Nobody has proved he cut it himself.

Sunset, and the alternative

Cape Sounion tours are sold as one thing: the sunset run. A coach or car goes down the coast road, stopping for a swim or a taverna. The cape follows with an hour in hand.

Private versions add the Athenian Riviera: Vouliagmeni and its warm lake, Varkiza, Anavyssos. The site itself takes forty minutes. The rest goes on looking at it.

In July and August a dozen coaches land inside the same half hour, and there is nowhere to retreat to. Come at opening instead. The headland is empty.

Practical

• Wind and shade. The headland is exposed, blows hard on days that are calm inland, and has no shade. Bring a layer.
• Closing. The gates shut shortly after the sun is down, so there is no afterglow.
• Getting there. Ninety minutes each way by road in traffic. The KTEL bus takes two hours; check the last one back.
• Entry. A modest fee at the gate, and the ticket office closes before the site.
• Swimming. A beach below the car park, another at Legrena five minutes on.
• Combining. Lavrio and its silver mines are a quarter of an hour up the coast.