by Jo Woodnutt

Created on: May 08, 2009   Last Updated: May 11, 2009

A Greek Sanctuary is any place consisting of a temple, an altar, and a wall (or something similar) that surrounds the area and designates it as holy ground. They were places where offerings to the gods were made and housed. Usually, they were built on hills, as this was the easiest place to defend in the case of attack, and they were often used as strongholds throughout Greek history.

There were hundreds of sanctuaries all over Greece, but most were small and only housed one or two small temples- for instance, the temple of Aphaia on Aigina. A few of the sanctuaries were of national importance to a group of people, for instance the Athenian Acropolis, where there were many temples and holy sites, including the ancient Acropolis buildings. Athenians travelled from all over to visit the Acropolis, but it was of little importance to other Greeks. Olympia and Delphoi were also Sanctuaries. They were pan-Hellenic, and of importance to all the city-states of Greece. They were far bigger and had stadiums, treasuries and theatres as well as the temples. Some sanctuaries had an inner and outer space.

The outer area would house the altar and temples, and sometimes the buildings that housed offerings, whilst the outer area would have theatres and would hold shows and contests. This is particularly evident at the sanctuary of Herakles on Thasos, where the steps built as part of the entranceway to the inner sanctuary were used as seating so that spectators could watch the entertainments on the outside. Many sanctuaries had a route to take to the propylaia. As at Delphoi, the paths could be themselves a factor in the development of a sanctuary.

Over time the Sacred Way became adorned with treasuries. Similarly, the "processional way" (used in rituals) was built-around in some places such as Olympia. There is no "standard" sanctuary, just as there is no "standard" temple- they are all different in size and shape, they all worship different deities, and they were all built and developed in different ages.

The most important factor that affected a sanctuary's size, layout and development was its geography. Sanctuaries in small, unimportant city-states would have been unimpressive in comparison to others. The deity worshipped there was likely to have been a local deity, only special to that city-state, whilst the larger and more powerful city-states worshipped many important gods and the sanctuaries were duly larger and more impressive.

Another geographical problem was

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