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Modern Description: Separating the Athenian and Thriasian plains is Mt. Aigaleos, which the Sacred Way crosses by the same pass used by the main motor road. To the W of the watershed stands the famous Byzantine monastery. In the exonarthex can be seen a marble Ionic column and capital, probably of Hadrianic date, and in the cloister Doric capitals from Classical times. Because of the association of the name Daphne with Apollo, and because Pausanias saw a Sanctuary of Apollo at about this location (1.37.6-7), there is a strong assumption that these and other reported ancient remains should be thought of as coming from that sanctuary.
On the heights to the SW of the monastery, 10 minutes' walk away, is a cave in which Pan and the nymphs were worshiped from the 5th c. B.C. Almost 2 km W of the monastery, immediately N of the highway, is a Classical Sanctuary of Aphrodite, which Pausanias described as having before it 'a wall of rough stones worth seeing'; (1.37.7). Today the most prominent remain is a vertical scarp of rock pockmarked with niches for votive reliefs, part of a walled temenos that also included a shrine, stoa, and propylon. A priest's house lies to the N of the Sacred Way, at this point well preserved, while to the S is a rectangular foundation of unknown purpose, whose extremely heavy walls may fit Pausanias' description. (C.W.J. ELIOT)
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphni_Monastery
Wikidata ID: Q500444
Trismegistos Geo: 14132

Info: Princeton Encyclopedia

(Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, from Perseus Project)

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