Roman temple in Silifke
Coordinates: 36 ° 22 ′ 33 ″ N , 33 ° 55 ′ 48 ″ E
The ruins of a Roman temple lie south of the center of the Turkish city of Silifke in the province of Mersin . The temple is located on İnönü Caddesi south of the Göksu River , the ancient Kalykadnos, and east of the castle hill, the Citadel of Silifke . He was thus on the edge of the ancient city of Seleukia on Kalykadnos, possibly extra muros .
description
The building was a peripheral temple with 14 columns on the long side and eight on the front. The dimensions are 40 × 21 meters. Today only parts of the podium and a fluted column with a Corinthian capital and scattered column drums are preserved. Parts of the gable or the entablature have not been preserved, only a fragment of the frieze with garlands and a picture of Nikes is in the museum of Silifke .
The temple was built in the Roman Empire in the 2nd century. It is not known to which deity the temple was dedicated. It could be the Temple of Zeus , which was converted into a basilica in the 5th century . According to another interpretation, it was a temple of Apollon Sarpedonicus or the Temple of Aphrodite , which was converted into a church under Bishop Dexianos in the first half of the 5th century.
literature
- Friedrich Hild , Hansgerd Hellenkemper : Kilikien and Isaurien. Tabula Imperii Byzantini Volume 5. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-7001-1811-2 , p. 404.
- Hansgerd Hellenkemper: The church in the temple. Temple of Zeus and Paul’s Basilica in Seleukeia on Kalykadnos. In: Orbis Romanus christianusque from Diocletiani aetate usque ad Heraclium. Travaux sur l'antiquité tardive rassemblés autour des recherches de Noël Duval. de Boccard, Paris 1995, pp. 191-203.
- Christof Berns : On the dating of the temples in Seleukeia on Kalykadnos and in Elaiussa-Sebaste (Cilicia). In: Damaszener Mitteilungen 10, 1998, pp. 135–154.
- Celâl Taşkıran: Silifke (Seleukeia am Kalykadnos) and surroundings. Sim Matbaası, Ankara 1999, pp. 20-21.