Kos - Aesculapium

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later inserted, subsequently converted into the church of the Panayía tou Alsoús. Adjoining this is a small museum. Along the south side of the terrace is the retaining wall of the next terrace. To the left, between the second and third buttresses, is the sacred spring. To the right, in front of a stretch of wall without buttresses, is a naiskos (small temple) dedicated to Nero, the "new Asklepios", by C. Stertinius Xenophon. From here steps lead up to the second terrace, the oldest part of the sanctuary. At the top of the steps is an altar, which in its present form is later than the small temple of Asklepios (C. 400 B.C.) to the west; of the earlier temple on this site only scanty traces have survived. To the east of the altar is an Ionic peripteral temple of 6 x 9 columns, possibly dedicated to Apollo. To the southwest was a semicircular exedra, and facing this, behind the old temple, a Roman building on earlier foundations.

Between these two buildings a monumental staircase 11m/36ft wide leads up to the third terrace, 12m/39ft higher up, with the later (second century B.C.) temple of Asklepios, a Doric peripteral temple of 6 x 11 columns. The black marble sill-stone has been preserved.

Higher up the hill (a 45-minute climb) is the Vourinna spring, which supplied the ancient city with water.