Temple of Apollo - Portara, Greece

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Sitting off the coast from Naxos, a tiny island in the Cycladic archipelago, stands the Temple of Apollo or Portara, an unfinished masterpiece that gazes out at Delos, birthplace of ancient Greece's revered god Apollo. Once connected to the larger island of Naxos by land, Palatia is now a small islet joined to its parent island by a man-made causeway. Conceived by tyrant Lygdamis as the largest and most majestic building in all Greece, the temple was intended to shine brightly before his downfall in 506 BCE. As fate would have it, Lygdamis was overthrown, leaving the temple unfinished and abandoned. Later, the site was transformed into a church during the 5th and 6th centuries, but by the time Naxos fell under Venetian and Ottoman rule, the church had been torn down to its foundation. Today, only remnants of the structure remain: parts of the foundation and an impressive monumental doorway that still stand tall.