Temple of Hephaestus
Best-preserved ancient Doric temple, dedicated to the god of blacksmiths, later a Byzantine church for a thousand years.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens starts with a mistake: for centuries visitors called it the Theseum, convinced it held the bones of the hero Theseus, until inscriptions revealed it had actually been built for the outcast god of blacksmiths. It follows the temple's long second life as a Christian church, and later as a graveyard for foreign volunteers who died fighting for Greek independence, including one man whose epitaph was written by Lord Byron. Look up at the columns that carried all of it.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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