The temple included a ramp leading up to a pronaos in the front of it and an enclosed opisthodomus in the rear. Thirty-eight Doric columns surround the stylobate on the exterior: six along the front and back, fifteen along the sides. The exterior columns were constructed from Corinthian limestone and covered with a white stucco made from marble dust. Sections of the entablature and foundations were also constructed of the limestone native to Mount Parnassus. Grey stone was used to construct the naos (cella) and pavement. Cyprus wood beams supported the roof, which was most likely constructed of pure marble, mimicking the Parthenon.

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The first Temple of Apollo at Delphi was built in the 7th c. BC under the architectural guidance of Trophonios and Agamedes. After a fire ruined the original structure, it was rebuilt in the 6th c. BC with the financial support of the exiled Athenian family, the Alkmaeonids. It was reconstructed for the third time in 330 BC by the Corinthian architects, Spintharos, Xenodoros and Agathon. The temple was again devastated by an earthquake in 373 BC. Athenian sculptors, Praxias and Androsthenes, created the sculptures ornamenting the pediment. The Temple of Apollo was eventually destroyed in 390 AD by Emperor Theodosius I during hes rant to eradicate all pagan shrines.

The temple was excavated by the Ecole francais d'Athens in 1893-4. In 1939-41, eight columns of the temple were re-erected. The reconstructed columns appear to have been done with an extra column drum, making the column too tall based on the statistical analysis. This seems to be a common practice for this site since the Tholos reconstruction used five column drums, rather than four as suggested by Dinsmoor (1950: 234). The reconstruction also deviates from the accepted ratios for a fourth century date (Woodward, p48). Currently, the column heights are listed as 10.59m, although statistically, if a column drum was removed, the column height should be 8.907 meters, which makes more sense.