Northwest Portico and Eschara (Grate)

NORTHWEST PORTICO

Porticoes are elongated roofed buildings with a colonnade along their long side, the façade. They were built in public places of gathering, such as squares, markets, sanctuaries, theatres et al. In fact, in the sanctuaries the worshippers could spend there the day or the night protected from weather changes.

At the entrance of the Sanctuary, an L-shaped portico bordered the west and north side of the Roman Court as far as the Sacred Road. The building had rooms only in the west section, while the north one was just a simple open shallow portico with a colonnade along its side facing the court to support the single-pitch roof. The rooms, as indicated by their layout and size, perhaps, accommodated official worshippers of the Sanctuary, while the larger room which had mosaic floor with geometric decoration was used for feasts and banquets.

ESCHARA (GRATE)

This is a peculiar altar that is dated to Roman times and most probably is contemporaneous with the paved Court.  It consists of a four-sided well, 1,75m. deep, built of baked mudbricks, which is enclosed by a low poros parapet.   

On the floor of the structure the fire was lit, while upon a small continuous projection, approximately halfway up the walls, rested the metal grate where the slaughtered animals from sacrifices were placed, mainly piglets, which due to their fertility were a common offering to goddess Demeter. The fire was supplied with air by a system of six perpendicular channels reaching from top to bottom on the lateral walls.

At a deeper level than the foundation of the Roman Eschara there are preserved traces of a wall of the 6^th cent. BC, built in the polygonal system of masonry, as well as the remains of an older apsidal building of the 8^th cent. BC.

Temple of Artemis Propylaia and Father Poseidon Fountain