Nísos Aígina

On Saturday 23 August there was very little wind and so Nicky had a very gentle beat upwind to Nísos Aígina whilst I tried to get up-to-date with processing photos and writing the blog, interrupted every now and then with a plaintive cry of ‘I need to tack in a minute; can you give me a hand with the genoa and staysail sheets?’ Eventually we reached Áyia Marína, a bay on the northeast of the island and the closest bay to the Temple of Aphaia.

Áyia Marína

The bay is open to the ‘normal’ afternoon southeast wind, the Bouka Doura, but the wind wasn’t blowing strongly when we arrived, and neither was the meltemi, so we thought that we’d give the anchorage a go knowing that could always move on if required. We anchored just northeast of the more northerly quay, not realising that it was routinely (3 times a day!) used by a small ferry. We got a bit of a shock when the first ferry turned up but we were far enough away from the ferry’s turning area that we didn’t cause a problem.  Overnight a swell started to enter the bay so we laid out the kedge anchor to keep BV bows-on to the swell and this had the added advantage of ensuring that we didn’t swing into the ferry’s approach path.

Our guidebook suggested that the Temple of Aphaia is open Tuesday to Sunday from 0830, so we got up early and walked up the hill, along what looked to be an ancient road from the beach to the temple, to arrive at 0830. However, the site now doesn’t open until 0930 and the museum is closed until 1030. With the wind building and gusting from the northwest we walked back down the hill to check that all was OK with BV and then returned to the temple to arrive at opening time.

The Temple of Aphaia has been called the ‘most perfectly developed classical temple in Greece’, which is why we were so keen to see it for ourselves. The temple is located on the top of a ridgeline and has amazing views across the Saronic Gulf north towards Athens and south towards the Peloponnoisis.

The surviving remains are actually from the last of three temples that were built on the site. Of the first, dated to the 6^th century BC, only traces of the foundations remain. The second temple was larger and had an altar in front on the east side. It was destroyed by fire and replaced by the third, surviving temple.

This temple dates from about 500 BC and had 6 Doric columns at the ends and 12 down the sides.

A number of the columns closer to the centre of the temple have also survived along with the ‘second storey’ columns that supported the roof.

The remains (we are unsure how much of the structure on display is original and how much is reconstructed) give a good impression of what the temple, and others like it, must have looked like in their prime.

Model and reconstructed parts of the second temple

The small archaeological museum also has some interesting finds. On display are sections of the second temple that, after its destruction, were buried in the foundations of the new (third) temple. Some of the original paintwork on the masonry has, therefore, survived the intervening 2,500 years and looks bright and nearly new. Because the surviving ancient Greek buildings have been bleached by the sun for thousands of years, Nicky and I think of them as having always been white or near-white. This museum reminded us that most of the buildings and their statues were highly painted and, notably, the background of the pediments was usually painted blue to match the sky.

The weather remained settled, though the wind continued to blow moderately hard from the northwest until the middle of the afternoon, so we remained at anchor in Áyia Marína for the rest of the day and overnight. On Monday 25 August we up-anchored and took advantage of the morning’s northwesterly breeze to sail across to Athens.

Nísos Aígina