First Temple of Hera I Interior Dividers

View looking southwest at the interior of the "First Temple of Hera." In the center of the image are three of the 7 columns that down the center of the cella and that divided it into two long rooms (possibly two deities were worshiped here?).  The span between the two long walls of the cella was too much to support roof beams, thus the necessity of this central cololonade.

Large flat stones on the right form the base for one of the four walls of the cella, the central room of the temple.

All the other columns in the picture are the peripteral Doric columns that surround the temple.

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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.