Paestum

Feel the ground first. It is warm, dry grass and pale dust, and the stone blocks at your feet have been heated by the southern Italian sun. Cicadas buzz in the pine trees. Somewhere nearby, wild fennel releases a faint smell of aniseed. Ahead of you rise columns the colour of old honey, pitted and porous, glowing gold when the light is low. You are standing inside a Greek city, on the Italian mainland, and some of these temples have stood here for around two and a half thousand years.

The city did not begin as Paestum. Its first name was Poseidonia, the city of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. Greek settlers founded it around 600 BCE. Most historians agree they came from Sybaris, a rich Greek colony further south along the coast of Italy. They chose a flat, fertile plain near the Gulf of Salerno, with water, farmland and a harbour within reach. Southern Italy was so full of Greek cities in this period that the Romans later called the region Magna Graecia, meaning Great Greece.

Start with the oldest of the three great temples, at the southern end of the site. Scholars in the eighteenth century called it the Basilica. They thought it was a Roman public hall, because they could not find the typical signs of a temple. The name stayed, even though we now know it was a temple, probably for Hera, the queen of the gods. It dates from the middle of the sixth century BCE. Count the columns across its front... there are nine. An odd number is very unusual for a Greek temple.

That odd number has a reason. Inside, a single row of columns once ran down the centre of the building to hold up the roof. Later Greek architects found this awkward, because the central row blocked the view of the cult statue. Now look closely at the columns themselves. They swell outwards in the middle and narrow sharply at the top, like a muscle under strain. Architects call this swelling entasis. Here it is especially strong, and it gives the whole temple a heavy, almost living look.

Next to it stands the temple most visitors remember. It is traditionally called the Temple of Neptune, the Roman name for Poseidon. That name is also a guess from early travellers. Many experts now think it was another temple to Hera, though the question is still debated. It was built in the fifth century BCE, roughly a century after its neighbour. It is one of the best preserved Greek temples anywhere in the world. Even parts of the inner structure survive — a rare thing.

Walk to the side and look inside. You will see two rows of columns, one stacked on top of the other, rising toward the space where the roof once was. This double level of columns held up the roof beams. In most ancient temples this inner part has completely disappeared. Here it is still standing, and you can imagine the dim interior, with the statue of the goddess in the shadows at the far end. All three temples follow the Doric style, the plainest Greek order, with simple, cushion-like tops on the columns.

Now walk north along the ancient main street, toward the third temple. It is smaller and stands on slightly higher ground. For a long time people called it the Temple of Ceres, a Roman goddess of grain. Excavations later found offerings that point to Athena, the goddess of wisdom and crafts, so today it is usually called the Temple of Athena. It was built around the end of the sixth century BCE. Between these two ends of the city, you can see how the Greeks placed their sacred buildings at either side of the town.

The Greeks did not keep this city forever. Toward the end of the fifth century BCE, the Lucanians took control. They were an Italian people from the mountains inland. Then, in 273 BCE, Rome founded a colony here and gave the city the name we use today, Paestum. Between the temples you can still see Roman work: the forum, which was the public square, and the low remains of an amphitheatre. Here is a surprise. A modern road was built straight across that amphitheatre, so half of it still lies under the road and the fields beyond.

Why are the temples so complete, when so many ancient cities were stripped for building stone? Part of the answer is decline. Over the centuries, the drainage of the plain failed. The land became marshy, and malaria made life here dangerous. In the early Middle Ages, most people moved up into the hills, to the area around modern Capaccio. The old city emptied. Thick vegetation and swampland surrounded the columns, and for a long time few people came here to take the stone away.

The temples returned to European attention in the eighteenth century. A new road was built through the plain, and visitors began to arrive. Paestum became a stop on the Grand Tour, the long cultural journey that young European aristocrats made through Italy. The artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi made famous etchings of the ruins. The German writer Goethe came in 1787. Many of these travellers were shocked. They expected the elegant Greece they knew from books, and instead they found these heavy, powerful columns.

Before you leave, visit the archaeological museum next to the site. It holds one of the most remarkable discoveries in all of Magna Graecia, the Tomb of the Diver. Archaeologists found it in 1968, in a burial ground outside the city. It dates from around 470 BCE. On the inside of its stone lid, a young man dives from a tall platform into blue water. Painted scenes of Greek figures from this period are extremely rare, so this small tomb carries a lot of weight for historians.

The city walls also survive, and they are worth your time. They run in a long circuit of nearly five kilometres around the ancient town, with gates and towers along the way. Walking or cycling part of them shows you the true scale of the place. Most of the city inside the walls has never been fully excavated. Under the fields and the grass around you, there are still streets and houses that no one has seen for many centuries.

The plain around Paestum still lives from the land. Herds of water buffalo graze nearby, and their milk is used for the soft buffalo mozzarella that this area is known for. In ancient times, the Roman poet Virgil mentioned the roses of Paestum, which were said to bloom twice a year. Since 1998, the site has been part of a UNESCO World Heritage area, together with the Cilento national park and other nearby places. The sea is only a short distance to the west.

Take one more look at the columns before you go. Notice how the colour changes as the sun moves, from pale grey to warm gold. Run your eyes over the small holes in the stone, where water and time have worked on it. Listen again to the cicadas and the wind in the pines. These same columns stood here when the city was full of people, and when it was empty marshland. As you walk away, look back once more... they will still be standing in the light.