Watching the sun set over the sea from the hill where Poseidon’s Temple resides was one of my favorite moments from the entire trip. The temple is a beautiful structure that I can remember hearing about from a young age. The more I look back on that moment of the trip, the more awestruck I am of the beauty of the temple, the land below, and the memories that were made there over thousands of years, and I feel like I never knew that places like this could actually exist. Over the course of the trip, we saw a multitude of examples of the dedication of Ancient Greek societies to their gods and the traditions surrounding their culture. This temple is a perfect example of this dedication, from its placement on a high peak overlooking the land and the sea to the sheer beauty of the structure itself. We saw the name of the British poet Lord Byron engraved in one of the marble columns of the temple. I was once again awestruck by the thought that this ancient structure was just as breathtaking to an explorer two hundred years ago, so much so that he carved his name into it to show his enthusiasm and appreciation toward it. We saw many structures like this one throughout the trip, some better preserved than others and some that required a great deal of restoration. But whether it is due to the stories surrounding it, the perfect placement of it overlooking the sea and the village below, or my memory of sitting over the cliff side watching the sun set behind it, this temple was my favorite thing I saw on this trip.
