It was one of those days when you sit in front of the computer and see, printed in bold, a subject in many blogs, mostly unknown to many people, who only seek to slightly increase their traffic…

On a day like this, I was bombarded by the “news” that the Temple of Epicurean Apollo …. rotates !! The “bug” of searching attacked me once again ..

That was it. The pin on the map was set. As soon as possible T-Motoriders would visit this ancient temple located at Vasseis Figaleias Peloponnese.

I contacted  a friend, a well-known researcher, who laughed   when I asked if what is said about the rotation is really true. I kept searching for information on the internet .. Eventually you feel a little awkward when you realize that … any propaganda or disinformation or misinterpretation   of a “strange” story, can spread so easily. The original article on the rotation of the Temple was first published in the late 2000’s. It is the theory of the mathematician Mr. Stelios Petrakis which is expressed   in his book “Investigate, find and write”

Because of the originality, the story was immediately reproduced, almost unchanged, by some blogs as it happened when I first read it. Some of our ancient history lovers later tried to document the scientific article. They discovered  that what was written was not correct and turned to the famous theory of … triangles, saying that the distance from one temple is “x “ Km from  the other  “y” Km   forming  a triangle … and so on .. The Ministry of Culture also drew a conclusion on rejecting the claim of the rotation. The materials that form the basis of the temple function as to absorbing vibrations such as an earthquake and not in order to rotate the Temple.

But this was a reason to learn even more beautiful and interesting things about the temple and which I will quote below…

Sunday morning, late March. T-Motoriders were ready at the meeting point destined to Figalia which is located on the border between Arcadia and Messinia and, rising at an altitude of 1,130 meters is the imposing temple of Epicurean Apollo. The approach from Athens can be made mainly by two ways. The first is through the Morea Highway and exit at Leontari (before Tolls Veligosti) to climb Lykaio mountain. But there is a bit of unpaved road, quite steep with red soil like powder and  when it rains it is  a very difficult crossing. We chose to go through the exit of Megalopolis and from there through Karytaina, Andritsaina and other villages to head uphill to our destination. Immediately after Andritsaina is an intersection leading to the waterfalls of Neda … another pin on the map for the T-Motoriders.

The route after Megalopolis cannot leave you untouched. The light green landscape is succeeded by a darker one as the altitude rises. The waters of the Alpheus River and its tributaries can be heard by stopping at almost every turn after Karytaina where its imposing castle takes one’s breath away. The higher you go, the more astonished you are by  the beautiful outskirts of the mountains.

There lies, hidden nowadays from the weather conditions, the Temple of Epicurean Apollo dedicated by the Figalians because he helped them to face the Spartans in 659 BC. They named it Epicurean because God Apollo protected  this area.

We left our bikes at the big parking which is just outside the entrance of the temple.

We arrived at the ticket office through the uphill path where we were expected by the new guard  of the site, Dionyssis, who had taken over a few weeks ago. Many things had been written about  this  matter because the old guard   had retired and the site had remained closed as it had not got any surveillance.

After we had  paid, we passed the checkpoint and we walked beneath the tent to discover what was hidden there.