The temple of Athena, which was famous in antiquity already and which was planned and begun by the architect Pytheos, was a continuous building site until it was finished in the 1st century AD. A rocky terrain that could easily carry the weight of the marble building was chosen as the location. On the southwest side of the rock formation there was a steep slope. Here about 10 m had to be replaced by an artificial foundation. To do this marble ashlars were layered up to a height of 2 m, which can be seen clearly in the old test dig. This foundation could not be seen in ancient times since it was covered with earth.
The temple itself was exposed by R.P. Pullan from Britain in the winter of 1868/69. But it was the German excavation at the end of the 19th century that was interested in the foundation and that excavated the section that is visible today. In 2013 the area was cleaned and walled in. During the cleaning a heretofore unknown small wall running north to south appeared. We are wondering now what the function of this wall was. Was it part of an earlier construction, maybe even an earlier temple? Or was it meant to level the slope and to hold in the heaped up earth.
Here you see that area.