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Altar and Serpent Column

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Altar and Serpent Column
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Photo Comments

View looking down on the remnants of the altar associated with the Apollo Temple at Delphi (just to the left of the two people in the lower right portion of the image).

Just to the left of it is a square base on top of which a circular base rests.  This is where the Tripod of the Plataeans rested.  This votive was dedicated by all the Greeks after their victory over the Persians in the battle of Plataea in 479 B.C.   This bronze Serpent Column was 24 ft. (7.5 m.] high and was constructed in the form of a three-bodied serpent.  The Phocians melted down the good from the tripod during the third Sacred War (354–343 B.C.) and Constantine transferred the serpentine column to Constantinople when it was founded in 330 A.D. and set it up in the Hippodrome—where it still stands.