A MYSTERY over the location of Ancient Greek temple honouring a famous goddess of hunting and the moon has been finally been solved after more than 100 years.
The legendary sanctuary dedicated to the worship of Artemis was found when researchers discovered instructions written by a Roman geographer Strabo were wrong.
This historic site was found in the fishing village of Amarynthos on the second largest Greek island Euboea.
Since the late-19th century archaeologists have been excavating around one mile from Eretria based on the calculations by Strabo but were consistently frustrated.
The breakthrough came when 10 years ago the Swiss Archaeological School on Euboea estimated that the ruins were actually more likely to be located 6.8 miles away.
The school began exploring plots at the hill of Paleokeiliski, east of Amarynthos, which matched the distance, reported Mail Online.
Instantly they found evidence of a fourth century BC monumental covered walkway.
Further excavations uncovered buildings dating to the sixth and second centuries BC including the core of the sanctuary in the summer.
An underground fountain and significantly inscriptions bearing the name Artemis were also found confirming this was indeed the historic temple.
The goddess was one of the famous Greek deities, a daughter of Zeus, who was seen as a protector of young children.
Long associated with Amarynthos, she was also the goddess of wild animals, wilderness, childbirth and virginity.
The Greek Culture Ministry said: "From some inscribed bases and sealed tiles bearing the name 'Artemis', it was possible to identify the sanctuary of Artemis Amarysia, as the inscriptions refer to assignments to the goddess Artemis, to her brother Apollo and to their mother Lito.
"According to ancient sources, this sanctuary was one of the most important of Evia. Its existence is known from the 10th book of the work of Roman geographer Strabo.
"Since the 19th century, archaeologists have tried to locate this sanctuary, but this has not been possible, despite many assumptions, because of the erroneous indication of distance in Strabo's text."
MOST READ IN NEWS