First Temple of Hera I Interior

View looking east at the interior of the "First Temple of Hera."  The numerous columns on the left, right, and in the distance are the peripteral Doric columns that surround the temple.

Large flat stones in the foreground and on the left form the base of two of the four walls of the cella, the central room of the temple.  In the center of the image are three columns in the middle of the cella. These are three of the 7 columns that ran down the center of the cella and that divided it into two long rooms (possibly two deities were worshiped here?).

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The "First Temple of Hera" is the southern most of the three well-preserved temples at Paestum.  It was the first of the three to be constructed, ca. 550-540 B.C.  It has 9 columns on the short sides and 18 on the long sides.