Continuing archaeological research at the major sanctuaries of Ionia has revealed detailed infor­mation concerning their chronology and spatial organ­ization. The location and the history of these sanctuar­ies has been investigated based upon a model that places the city at the centre of the territory. According to this model, the location of these sanctuar­ies has been classified under the categories: urban, semi-urban and extra-urban. However, an alternative approach to this model can be through recognising that the history of these sanctuaries was shaped by their interaction with both the physical and human geogra­phy. Applying this alternative model, one could go on to examine the im­pact of the “human geography” on the choice of the particular location and the spatial organization of these sanctuaries. Thus, in Ionia since the sea provides the prin­cipal communica­tion surface between different frag­ments of the region, access to the sea is a common feature of many Ionian sanctuaries and it seems be­tween the Bronze Age and the Archaic Period there was a repeated similarity in the religious responses to the topography of the environment.