Today, traveling an hour by ferry from Piraeus, the port of Athens, the first remnant of Aegina's great past a visitor will see is the lonely pillar of Apollo rising from the trees on the hill of Kolona. Once a splendid complex of three buildings (the Temple of Apollo itself rose on eleven large pillars and six smaller ones) and a cemetery (in which a large collection of gold and jewelry was found in the tombs, now housed in the British Museum) the pillar of Apollo is all that remains. This seems a fitting symbol for the whole of Aegina's history: the island which once boasted the best wine, a high standard of living and a naval fleet which rivaled that of Athens is, today, known as the leading producer of pistachio nuts in Greece.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original article at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/39/the-island-kingdom-of-aegina-the-old-gods-still-wh/.
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