Ancient Thermo was located just outside the current location of the village and its history starts from the Copper Age, around 2500 B.C.
The most important findings in ancient Thermo are a big number of buildings and tunnels, where the market was located, as well as the bases of the statues that stood in their entrance. According to the historian Polybius, during the peak of the Commonwealth, these statues exceeded the number of 2000.
The two tunnels that were found (eastern and western) date back to the late 4^th or early 3^rd century B.C. The eastern tunnel is 170 meters long. These tunnels seemed to be two of the longest and surrounded a 200-meter long and 21-meter wide square, a construction that was used extensively later on in Roman cities. The diggings also brought the temple of Thermios Apollo to light, which must have been one of the oldest in Greece (7^th century B.C).
The temple consisted of a deep united alcove, separated after the longitudinal axis by a 12 columns collonade holding the roof. The columns of the external collonade (5X15) were denser in the smaller sides. The temple’s dimensions are about 12 meters wide and 38 meters long. The columns leaning on stone bases were wooden, as well as the whole superstructure (entablature) of the building. The entablature was richly invested with clay metope, triglyph, gutter and antefixes.
The temple of Thermios Apollo was the first complete sample of the Doric style in ancient Greece. The painted parts of the temple, remains of art from the Archaic era, continue to impress with their wide range of colors and the synthetic power of the Greek painting tradition.
Other significant findings in the archaeological site of Thermo are the smaller temples Lysios Apollo and Lafria Artemis.
Lafria Artemis was the favorite Goddess of the locals. She is the Goddess of fertility and fruition, the Mother of the land and whole nature and has nothing to do with the Hunter Artemis of the twelve Gods of Olympus. This ancient Goddess was tightly connected with the social status of women and especially the woman-mother. As a result, during the ancient times in Aetolia, the community was ruled by mothers and the first Goddess was Mother Nature.
The site is open for public every day.
Source: http://lyk-therm.ait.sch.gr