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The construction and interior features of the last temple on the site, Temple C (ca. 375/350 B.C. - A.D. 160/170), are documented in this photograph, taken from the east. Like its predecessors, Temple C was built with stone blocks re-used from earlier Minoan structures on the site. The slab floor of the temple was well preserved, as is the plan of the structure, which was larger than its predecessor - measuring 9 m wide and 11.50 m long on the exterior - and had a slightly different orientation, some six degrees further northeast. This shift in orientation aligned the temple more directly with Archaic Altar H in the courtyard to the east, permitting an unrestricted view from inside the temple to the religious activities focused on that altar. Visible against the inner southern, eastern, and northern walls are upright stones that functioned as supports for wooden benches. The two rounded limestone bases projecting from the floor in the center of the temple accommodated the stone columns that supported the roof. Unfortunately, no capitals were found, and judging from a weathered column drum found near the entrance the columns were unfluted and roughly cut. You can see that the hearth, the locus of ritual burning within the temple, was bordered by stones and set into the floor between the two columns. Like most later Greek temples, Temple C housed one or more cult statues, which were placed on a well-built platform set against the west wall on axis with the hearth (ca. 2.85 m long and 1.50 m wide, originally at least 0.95 m high). A more makeshift platform, probably for offerings, was set against this one in the northwest corner (upper right in photograph). A partially preserved Minoan stone stand that once supported a stone bowl, located just to the right and beyond the far column base in our photo, appears to have been re-used as a support for a bench in the later phases of Temple C, one illustration of a noticeable tendency at Kommos to respect and "recycle" venerable artifacts.
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