Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia

Just before Delphi's main sanctuary opens before you, this site marks the threshold to it. Its name, "Athena before the temple," tells you exactly where you stand: at the entrance to the sanctuary of Apollo. The sanctuary's most celebrated monument is its tholos, a circular building of elegant proportions whose exact purpose remains a matter of conjecture. The site's long life spans the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Antique periods, and excavation has continued here from 1985 into recent years, gradually revealing its walls.