Kalapodi (Greek: Καλαπόδι) is a village in the Lokroi municipality, Phthiotis, Central Greece.

[2] Lokroi straddles the pass leading over the low mountains between the Bay of Atalantis in the Gulf of Euboea to the plains of Boeotia north of Lake Copais.

A subsidiary road connects Zeli, a mountain village, part of Kalapodi, on the north.

On the east, just before the village, it branches to another pass, "the Valley of Exarchos," named after the municipality of Exarchus, on its eastern flank.

The road through the valley is the Atalanti-Orchomenus, which turns more sharply to the south to enter the plains of Boeotia more to the east, closer to the old capital of Thebes.

Kalapodi supports a population of several hundred persons, a few churches, a doctor, clinic, police station, kindergarten, primary school and facilities for travellers and tourists.

After recent excavations the German Archaeological Institute in Athens has ventured to identify the site as that of Abae, the oracular sanctuary of Apollo.

[6] There were only two locations that could be major ancient sites, both in the Valley of Exarchos, then known as Kalapodi, bracketing the village to the north and south.

They had no evidence of the ancient identities but they were looking for two sites and these hills seemed the best candidates, so they labeled the southern one "the town of Abae" and the northern one "Hyampolis.

Of the supposed town of Abae, the British Sckool reports that the excavation "was conducted in bad weather and proved disappointing.

The reference works portrayed the geopolitics as the British had concluded; in particular, Pauly-Wissova, the major German encyclopedia, took up the theme.

In 1970, R. Felsch of the DAI (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut) visiting Kalapodi perused the site of a temple on a hillside beside the road between the village and the crossroads.

It was clear from the antiquity and continuity of the site that it was a third major candidate for historically famous locations around the crossroads.

Felsch created a third location by separating the Sanctuary of Artemis Elaphebolos from the city she patronized, Hyampolis.

Delphi though nominally Phocian, was in the political hands of an amphictyony, or committee, formed from members of other states.

[10] With the elucidation of this view in mind, the DAI supported a geophysical survey, 2014-2017, by the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.

Believing that further evidence was to be found there, Niemeier referred to it as the source of a solution to ‘’Das Orakel-Rätsel’’, “the oracle riddle;” that is, where was the famous and ancient oracle, down in the Valley of Exarchus between Hyampolis and its distant shrine of Artemis, or up at the crossroads for all to encounter coming from the east, west, and south?

The necessity for investigation was so great that Niemeier was able to acquire funding for it and was made director of the excavation by the DAI, 2004-2013.

Similarly, the British School is not to be faulted for failure of a correct identification with the resources they had at that time.