180 TRAVEL, ADVENTUKE, AND SPORT. 



ledge on which the temple stands runs out from a 

 grand amphitheatre of rugged mountains, all of the 

 cold grey tone peculiar to a limestone formation. The 

 barrenness of the hillsides is relieved by little or no 

 vegetation. Only here and there stands a single 

 stunted oak, whose gnarled branches and trunk are 

 covered with dark-green moss or golden lichen. The 

 last survivors these may be of some mighty forest, 

 which in the days of old surrounded the temple. 

 Now they look forlorn enough, the only representa- 

 tives of life in a scene of utter desolation. 



The view from the temple, looking southwards, is 

 very magnificent. Immediately below, a precipitous 

 descent leads down into the valley of the Neda, flow- 

 ing westward into the Ionian Sea. Beyond this 

 depression rise, on the right, the mountains of Mes- 

 senia, the cone of Mount Ithome, last stronghold of 

 Messenian liberty, conspicuous among them. To the 

 left are seen the grander mountains of Laconia, the 

 jagged snow-peak of Taygetus towering above them 

 all Taygetus, at whose foot stood Sparta. In the 

 far background a faint glimmer marks the sea in both 

 the Messenian and Laconian gulfs. 



Let us now turn to the temple itself, one of the 

 most perfect specimens of Doric architecture now 

 existing. It was built, as Pausanias tells us, in the 

 year 438 B.C., by the inhabitants of Phigaleia, and 

 dedicated to Apollo Epikourios the Helper who 

 had, at their prayer, stayed the course of a plague 



