Ancient temple dedicated to goddess Aphrodite found in Turkey

Ancient temple dedicated to goddess Aphrodite found in Turkey

Another temple to Aphrodite in Cyprus

THE ruins of a 2,500-year-old temple dedicated to the Greek goddess of love and fertility, Aphrodite, has been unearthed in western Turkey.

Aphrodite was also the Greek goddess of beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation and a temple where she would have been honoured has been found above ground on the Urla-Çeşme peninsula, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported earlier this month.

It is similar to a site discovered in the past, the Temple of Aphrodite at Knidos.

The team found piece of a statue depicting a woman and a terracotta figure of a female head in the remains of the temple.

The temple dates to the fifth century BC and around it there is an inscription that reads, “This is the sacred area,” research leader Elif Koparal, an archaeologist at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Turkey, revealed to the press.

The area where the temple was found is known for its ancient settlements and Koparal and her team first discovered traces of the temple back in 2016, this and other historical sites in the area, some of them dating back to prehistoric times, will need to be protected from treasure hunters and building.


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Jennifer Leighfield

Jennifer Leighfield, born in Salisbury, UK; resident in Malaga, Spain since 1989. Degree in Translation and Interpreting in Spanish, French and English from Malaga University (2005), specialising in Crime, Forensic Medicine and Genetics. Published translations include three books by Richard Handscombe. Worked with Euro Weekly News since November 2006. Well-travelled throughout Spain and the rest of the world, fan of Harry Potter and most things ‘geek’.

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