#pseudodipteral

Temple of Aphrodite

Aphrodisias, Asia minor (Turkey)

1st century CE

The sanctuary of Aphrodite was the heart of the community, and its central focus was a traditional Greek-style temple surrounded by columns and built entirely of marble. The temple was the house of the goddess and accommodated her cult statue. It was an Ionic temple and designed in the hellenistic manner of the architect Hermogenes. In technical terms, it was pseudodipteral, octostyle, and pycnostyle. That is, the temple chamber (cella) was surrounded by a wide colonnade (pseudodipteral); it has an eight-column facade (octostyle); and its columns are set close together (pycnostyle). The long sides had thirteen columns. Its outside dimensions were 8.5 X 31 m.

The site was a local cult center centered around a local fertility goddess since at least the 7th century BCE. In the hellenistic period, the local goddess came to be identified with the Greek goddess Aphrodite, in a similar manner as the Artemis of Ephesus was originally a local goddess who came to be identified with Artemis, and the city became a pilgrimage for people from across Anatolia and the Aegean sea.

The chronology of the temple is secured by inscriptions. The first phase, dated to the 30s BCE by a dedication of C. Julius Zoilos inscribed on the door lintel, probably included the cella with a columned porch. Around this the outer columns were added during the first century CE, as recorded in individual donor inscriptions on the columns. In the second century CE, the temple was enclosed in an elaborate colonnaded court, framed by a two-storeyed columnar façade on the east side, and by porticos on the north, west, and south. Soundings beneath the temple have revealed archaic pottery and some early structures on a different orientation, including a large piece of early Hellenistic pebble mosaic, but nothing to demonstrate an archaic predecessor of the Roman temple.

Maqâm er-Rab ("shrine of the Lord")

Beit Jallouk, Lebanon

160 CE

Situated nn the valley of Akkar, Maqâm er-Rab was a Hexastyle Pseudodipteral peripteral Temple of an original order, dedicated probably to Athena as the main deity, surrounded by a rectangular enclosure. It is built in basalt, which sets it apart from other Lebanese shrines and is surrounded by tombs from the Roman period.

The sanctuary peribolus wall is a rectangular enclosure with the northern and southern sides being longer. At least two monumental gates were built in the eastern wall of the peribola. A temple, facing south-east, stands in the middle axis of the courtyard, shifting towards the back, to the west. It is on a podium, the bottom of the cella of which is occupied by the platform of an adyton, above a crypt. 

The peristyle consisted of a double row of six columns on the front, six columns on the short rear side and eleven columns on the long sides, with spans of unequal width on either side of the large central span. Its columns rested on pedestals set on the upper seat of the podium. They were made of an assembly of drums of reduced height, due to the peculiarities of the local basalt, from which large blocks cannot be made. The capitals which surmounted them are original. Only their upper part is known: it takes the unusual appearance of a gorget without leave or groove surmounted by a quadrangular abacus with a smooth molding in an inclined plane; at each angle of the abacus, the tip of a heavy leaf stuck to the gorget curls outward; on each side, a thin rough garland is suspended between the leaves.

The cella has a rectangular plan. In front, they are extended by antes. At the rear of the building, they are decorated with angular pilasters. The main door of the cella is not preserved. To the south, to the left of the entrance, the facade has a small door leading probably to a stairwell.

Five inscriptions relate to the layout of the sanctuary and the organization of local cults. The oldest indicates that, thanks to sacred funds, the construction of a wall was carried out in the years 160 CE, under the supervision of the priest Saizoubas son of Baréon and under the authority of his son Abiddaranes and Aboudemmos son of Sabinus . In a cartouche, on a column drum, a second inscription mentions new works under the priesthood and the curatorship of Sabinus, also known as Aboudemmos, son of Sabinus. More recent than a century, three other texts emanate from the priest Drusus: one of them is a dedication to Athena, probably the tutelary deity of the temple; the other two, engraved on two sides of the same plinth, commemorate the offering of statues of Nemesis and Kairos Kalos ("Auspicious Moment"), in February 262 CE.

Sanctuary of Sfireh

Sfireh, Dennieh region, north Lebanon

The Sfireh temples were of the largest ruins in Lebanon, built in the time of the Emperor Septimius Severus in the 2nd century CE. which explains the name of the village of Sfireh, adapted from Severus.

The sanctuary occupies a terrace at the foot of Qornet Hosn el-Aatiq, at an altitude of 1200 m. There is a panoramic view of Tripoli and the wooded region of Sir ed-Daniyé, above the gorges of Ouadi Qatine, to the south, and the terraces of the valley of Ouadi Abou Moussa, to the north. Some remains indicate that the site would have hosted a Christian basilica and a fortified town, from which it would derive its name of Hosn , "Fortress". Three religious buildings from the Roman period are grouped together within the same peribola.

The great Temple

283-4  CE

The great temple stands out as the most imposing of all. It must have been originally designed as a Pseudodipteral building on a podium, open to the east, with a tetrastyle pronaos , a peristyle made up of six columns in front and eleven columns on each of the long sides and a cella at the bottom of which rose the platform of an adyton equipped with a crypt. However, its podium, made of megalithic blocks, was not extended to the screed walls of the staircase and, as the blocks of the stylobate are rough in size, it is impossible that the columns of the pronaos and those of the peristyle were once raised there. Only the cellahas therefore been carried out. It rises on an attic base largely in the state of draft. Preserved almost everywhere on a height of eight seats, its walls are built in simple apparatus with blocks of large apparatus, even megalithic (some of them measuring up to 3 m long). On the facade, they are extended by antes, to which correspond angular pilasters at the back of the building, and are decorated with six pilasters engaged on each of the long sides, two pilasters engaged in the rear wall of the temple and a band. horizontal projecting, at breast height.

A large axial bay and a small side door give access to the cella. To the left of the main entrance, a second side door leads to a stairwell and to the upper parts of the building. On the portal, restored by H. Kalayan, only the decoration of the lintel and its two side consoles has been completed; an eagle in high relief stands out in the middle of the lintel. Inside the cella, the pavement could never have been made. The walls of the room are here also adorned with engaged pilasters and a projecting horizontal band. The pilasters form seven spans from the entrance wall to the back wall.

The adyton platform occupies the last three spans of the cella. Two staircases are integrated into its massive, broader, center, and the other closer to the left, while a side door gives access to the crypt, right. The engaged plinths that rest on the platform are the only elements kept at the upper level.

One wall is dated by inscription 283-4 CE. Of interest is that the benefactors, Aristonas, Diodoros and Silonas, all have Greek names, but the architect, Gaius, and his stonemasons, Bennius and Publius have Roman names.

The small Temple - Two column antae temple of the Ionic order, open to the east 3.5 m north of the big one.