From the Mycenaean age to Roman grandeur and the silence beneath the earth: the three-thousand-year story of an oracle.
Klaros was the sanctuary of Colophon and Notion, located approximately 1.6 kilometres north of the harbour town of Notion and about 13 kilometres south of Colophon.
Dedicated to Apollo, this oracular centre remained in use for centuries before eventually disappearing beneath the alluvium of the Ales Stream. The following is a brief chronology of its history.
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Beyond the sacred spring, the earliest architectural structure identified on the site is the altar. The material recovered from the altar and its surroundings counts as the site's first archaeological finds, offering important evidence about the sanctuary's use and its ritual function.
Construction begins on the temple and altar of Apollo, together with structures dedicated to Artemis and Leto.
Construction of the Hellenistic temple of Apollo Klarios begins around 300 BCE. The Great Altar and the hecatomb block — used to tether a hundred sacrificial animals — are completed.
The oracle became a major centre consulted by official delegations reaching from North Africa to Britain, surpassing Delphi and Didyma.
As Christianity spread, Klaros lost its original function and fell into the shadow of the civic architecture and workshops that reached it from the city.
In the Byzantine period the surroundings of Klaros became a settlement, and over time the site was completely covered by layers of alluvium carried down by the streams — leaving the sanctuary buried underground for centuries.
