Cave Sanctuaries of the Acropolis of Athens

The Cave Sanctuaries of the Acropolis of Athens are the natural fissures in the rock of the Acropolis hill that were used as sites of worship for deities of the Panhellenic pantheon in antiquity [1]. The northwestern slope of the rock of the Acropolis is dominated by three cave openings dedicated to the worship of Pan, Zeus and Apollo respectively [1]. On the east slope is the Aglaureion, the largest of the Acropolis caves at 14m across the mouth [1]. Herodotus records that the Persians in 480 BCE used this part of the hill to scale the Acropolis [1]. Pausanias described the Aglaureion as being above the sanctuary of the Dioskouroi near the Prytaneion [1]. These sources were the only inconclusive clues to the location of the shrine which was not identified as its current site until the 1980 stele find [1].