In the north-eastern end of the island of Lemnos, cape Chloi, the temple of Kabeirion lies imposingly, dating from the end of the 8th century BC until the 5th century AD. It was built on top of two man-made terraces, one in the southern and one in the northern part.
In the sanctuary, the initiation halls [Telestiria] were the predominant areas, situated within a precinct so that the rituals were shielded from the view of the uninitiated.
The sanctuaries were surrounded by secondary residential premises, the remains of which are preserved on the rocky slopes. They are buildings with small, double, or triple rooms and a central hall.
Inside the residences, findings of a large number of horizontal and vertical type clay cells, of the Hellenistic and Roman period, as well as of pithos fragments with the sanctuary inscription engraved on their rim, are particularly interesting.
The finding of the sole burial, to this day, within the sanctuary, that also dates back to the late 4th century BC, added more interest to the worship place of the temple of Kabeirion.
In the Kabeirion sanctuary, the early worship period dates back to archaic times and it is confirmed by the presence of a small, late archaic, 7th century BC Telestirion. As the available archaeological evidence about the sanctuary’s operation during the classical period is minimal, the temple of Kabeirion is assumed to be at its peak during the Hellenistic and classical period which dates back to the 2nd century BC. Five centuries later, during the 3rd century BC, the Hellenistic temple was destroyed and deconstructed in order to build a new worship building, that was the late Roman Telestirion, the abandonment of which marks the permanent abandonment of the grand temple of Kabeirion.