page_title: Sounion
section_title: Fortress
hierarchical_section_title: Sounion / History / Fortress
caption_attribution_description: Bastion Delta of the fort from the north, Cape Sounion, Greece
context_page_description: Cape Sounion is the promontory at the southernmost tip of the Attic peninsula, 8 kilometres south of the town of Lavrio, and 70 kilometres southeast of Athens. It is part of Lavreotiki municipality, East Attica, Greece. It is part of Athens metropolitan area.
  Cape Sounion is noted for its Temple of Poseidon, one of the major monuments of the Golden Age of Athens. Its remains are perched on the headland, surrounded on three sides by the sea.
context_section_description: In 413 BC, during the Peloponnesian War against the Spartans, the Athenians fortified the site with a wall and towers to prevent it from falling into Spartan hands. This would have threatened Athens' seaborne grain supply route from Euboea. Athens' supply situation had become critical since the city's land supply lines had been cut by the Spartan fortification of Dekeleia, in north Attica. The Sounion fortress was soon later seized from the Athenians by a force of rebel slaves from the nearby silver mines of Laurium.
  The Temple of Poseidon was situated in the southeastern corner of the fortress, with the garrison quarters arranged along a main stream on the western slope of the hill. The fortress included a small naval base, with a shipshed for two warships in the northwestern corner (37.6524°N 24.0228°E). The fortress was maintained well into the Hellenistic period. Repairs and additions to the fortress were made during the Chremonidean War (266–261 BC).
caption: Remains of Bastion Delta seen from the north.
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