The Augustus Temple of Ankara

This temple is supposed to have been built over an earlier temple dedicated to Kybele and Men between 25-20 BC. The Marble Temple measuring 36x54.82 m used to stand on a pediment of several steps about 2m high. It faces the west and it is planned in pseudodipteros with 8 ionic pillars on the short side and 15 pillars on the long side. Internal complexes (Naos) consisted of three parts with two chorinthian pillars in the pear section (Antea) and four more in the antae on the gateway (Aronaos). 

This temple is of great importance with the inscriptions referring to the acts of Augustus. The inscriptions related to the same acts written in Latin are found on psidia and tiochia in Yalvaç while the Greek version was on the Phrygian Apolloin in Uluborlu. The inscriptions on this temple are the best preserved bilingual texts quoting the ruler's speeches. The speeches delivered by Augustus himself are known as "Index rerum gestarum" and have been inscribed bilingually, in Greek and Latin, on the walls known to be "Monumentum Ankyranum". The inscriptions in Latin appear on the internal surface of the Pronaos while the Greek versions are placed on the southwest external surface of the Naos. Just after the disappearance of the ruler in the early Christian era, the temple was changed into a basilica and three windows were annexed on the south wall of the Cella with cryptos beyond the Naos. In the ensuing years, when Ankara was conquered by the Seljuks in the 2nd millennium A.D., the mosque called "Hacı Bayram" was built nearby the northwest complex of the temple. The Cella, the Pronaos and the temple survived, though the North West wall of the Cella was destroyed in 1834. The first systematic studies were carried out by C.Texier, G.Perrot, M.Schede, and D.Krencker and the complementary excavations were continued by Dr.Hamit Z.Koşay in 1930.