Cape Sounion

The southernmost point of Attica is a rocky cape jutting into the Aegean Sea, cradling the maritime gateway to the Saronic Gulf and marking the southeastern threshold of Attica—the very portal to the ancient city-state of Athens. Two ancient sanctuaries are built upon this iconic edge, which is first mentioned in written sources by Homer in the Odyssey: the Sanctuary of the goddess Athena, patron deity of Athens, and the Sanctuary of Poseidon the Earth-Shaker, god of the sea, storms and earthquakes. Due to its geographical position and control over maritime communications, as well as its proximity to the silver mines of Lavreotiki and command over the land road connecting Athens to its wealthy resources, the sacred cape of Sounion was a site of supreme strategic importance throughout antiquity. But even after losing its strategic significance, Sounion continues to retain the sanctity of the most iconic cape not only in the entire Aegean, but in the whole Eastern Mediterranean.