The Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassae

• View of Temple. Photo. M. Hirmer

• Aerial view of the Temple. Photo: Hannibal, Athens

This Doric temple, in Arcadia (south-west Greece), was built around 420 BC, but its sculptures are slightly later, about 400 BC. The metopes are poorly preserved, but the interior frieze is in better condition.

Plan of the temple. Drawing: Florence Maskell

The temple was unusual for a number of reasons: its north-south orientation, the position of its frieze around the inside of the cella, and the unique design of its interior colonnade of Ionic columns with the earliest known Corinthian column at one end.