Temple of Poseidon at Sounion belongs to the years before the Common Era — dated here to c. 444 BCE at Cape Sounion, Greece. The date is a scholarly centre of gravity, not a foundation-stone timestamp.
A marble Doric temple on the last cliff of Attica, where sailors looked up and knew they were almost home.
How it was made
Periclean date, local marble, columns that Byron later carved his name into — vandalism that became a footnote.
Why it still counts as a wonder
It never needed a Greek list to be a wonder: the labour, the alignment, or the survival is enough.
Sunset is the remaining cult. The architecture is a lighthouse made of columns.
On dating
BCE in this series means years before the traditional birth of Christ, counted backward. A monument listed as c. 444 BCE may have been founded earlier, rebuilt later, or famous only in one phase. Where ancient writers disagree — as they do for Babylon’s gardens — we say so.
This is story 61 of 100 in The Trend Ledger’s illustrated desk on world wonders raised before the Common Era.