Old Temple of Athena

The Old Temple of Athena (Archaios Neos) was an archaic Doric limestone temple on the Acropolis of Athens, built c. 530-520 BC during the Peisistratid tyranny. Measuring approximately 21 by 43 metres, it featured a peripteral design with 6 by 12 columns, a pronaos, cella, and opisthodomos. The temple housed the sacred xoanon, an olive-wood cult statue of Athena Polias believed to ensure Athens' invulnerability. Its pediments depicted the Gigantomachy in marble sculpture. Persian forces under Xerxes destroyed the temple in 480 BC. Wilhelm Dorpfeld discovered its foundations between the Parthenon and Erechtheion in 1885-1886, confirming an archaic temple long conjectured from literary sources.