What I can see

A building dedicated to the Mother (of the Gods). Mitir in ancient Greek means mother and the word metroon comes from “mitir”. Its 4 spaces had a common colonnade with Ionic columns and a length of 39m. The fourth space had an open peristyle. In the northern part of this space parts of an older temple were found, which probably had been destroyed by the Persians.

What I can't see

The original state documents (papyri or parchments) were kept here and this was the city registry office, where Athenians were registered on the tenth day after their birth. The altar was located to the north of the Metroon and one of the two northern halls was a place of worship. The statue of the Mother of the earlier temple was probably transferred to the adjacent building (New Assembly Hall/ New Vouleftirion), after the destruction of the earlier temple by the Persians. The later temple was of Ionic order, as well as some new colonnades of the Hellenistic era. These buildings gradually began to change the strict Doric architecture of the Ancient Agora and made it look more like the corresponding agoras of the colonies of Asia Minor (eg Miletus, Ephesus, etc.), where the Ionian order comes from.

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