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Modern Description: All that has survived of the sanctuary of Apollo Deiradiotes or Pythios is a monumental staircase cut in the rock and an altar. Remains of a Byzantine basilica are visible SE of the altar. On a higher terrace to the east, there is a rectangular building with an internal colonnade (an oracle ?) and on a third terrace, the foundations of a building with a covered cistern (Asklepieion ?). Further south, on a lower terrace, are preserved the remains of a tholos, possibly identified as the sanctuary of Athena Oxyderkes. The sanstuary is locaded on the hill of Profitis Ilias, in Argos.
Evidence of religious activity at the site exists as early as the Archaic period (6th century B.C.), but most of the surviving monuments were built during the 4th century B.C. According to inscriptions, the sanctuary was repaired twice, in the 4th-3rd centuries B.C. and in the early Roman Imperial period (1st century A.D.). The basilica SE of the altar was built in the Early Christian period (5th century A.D.) and was replaced by a larger church in the Byzantine period (10th century A.D.).
Today the monumental staircase and the area in front of it are used for cultural events.
The site was excavated by the French School of Archaeology at Athens at the beginning of the century. The medieval structures have destroyed the earlier buildings, leaving in place only their foundations or carvings in the rock. The finds date from the period between 8th century B.C. and the Byzantine times (10th century A.D.).
DARE: 46254

Info: Odysseus

(Odysseus, Greek Ministry of Culture)

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