The sanctuary of Athena in the city of Priene represents the rare case of an exceptionally well preserved urban sanctuary of the Hellenistic period. This book deals with three of its principal structures: the altar, the stoa, and the propylon. It examines their associated architectural members, advances new reconstructions, and investigates structural developments, as well as changing architectural designs. It also offers a comprehensive chronological analysis of the sanctuary’s building complex, including a new reconstruction of the sanctuary’s earliest phase during the Late classical period. As a result, we can now trace the dynamic process of the sanctuary’s architectural development over a period of nearly 350 years.

The Temple of Athena Polias at Priene was designed and begun by Pytheos in an epoch of classical revival under the Hekatomnid´s rule in Karia (392 – 334 B. C.). The present Volume III of the Priene series gives, after earlier studies by the Society of Dilettanti and Th. Wiegand, an exhaustive description and analysis as a result of thorough studies of the ruin and all available parts. Its ground plan, a grid of squares and most of the details was obviously ruled by the general axial spacing of the columns (353.3 cm = 12 attic feet) as basic measurement. The temples place in the history of ancient and post-medieval classical architecture and research is demonstrated.