Zoster and Brauron - Apollo and Artemis

Having returned to the mainland from Crete, we immediately set about exploring the area southeast of Athens, and working our way up the eastern coast to Marathon.

We started with Zoster, and the Temple of Apollo Zoster, a little gem just outside of Athens, now located in a private beach club, but they will happily let you come in to look at the well-manicured ruins.  It's a marketing opportunity to get you to stay for a beverage or see the club first--hand, and maybe rent a chair.  Well, it worked.  We saw the ruin, and stayed for coffee/sparkling water, bought some more sunscreen and aloe, and I got my feet wet in the Saronic Gulf..

First impression and then detail of the inner naos with marble throne and altar.

There was also a secondary site down the street, the Priest house of the Apollo Zoster Sanctuary.  As these ruins lay among trees and bushes, and seemed to have been used for "other purposes", it was hard to parse this house as one structure, but there were some obvious walls and rooms.  

Long narrow room which seems to be a prerequisite.

Room with a bush! And another room behind, also with more foliage.

Meanwhile, in Brauron, the Sanctuary of Brauronian Artemis gave us a microcosm of a town--temple, stoa colonnade and shops, steele with inscriptions...

Because there are multiple buildings, I start with the site map.

Of course, the first thing you see is the colonnade, but not to be deceived--this is not for the temple, but surrounding the agora and with what would have been shops surrounding.  Although only two sides are shown with structures above ground, there were obvious lines in the grass (where it doesn't grow) indicating structures just beneath the surface.  See my previous post from 2017 at Megalopolis for some other great pictures of this phenomenon.  

 Interior side of the colonnade.

Exterior of colonnade, two directions, showing shops and especially the thresholds for each one.

Dead grass and some foundation peeking through topsoil extending from colonnade to define third side with other shops proportionally spaced to the right of the protective walkway.  

Steele with inscription to Artemis.

Sanctuary Fountain.

Actual temple of Artemis.  Unfortunately, as is usually the case, there is a church directly behind it, and many of the building materials remaining on the Sanctuary were used in that building.  I'm sure 1000+ years ago the decision was made that the colonnade was not particularly religious in nature, and therefore, posed no threat.