The Caesareum of Alexandria
About
Began as a shoreline shrine Cleopatra raised, then was rededicated to the cult of the god Augustus once Egypt became a Roman province. In 13 BCE the prefect Publius Rubrius Barbarus hauled two New Kingdom obelisks — cut a millennium before Alexandria even existed — from Heliopolis to stand in its forecourt; they're known today as Cleopatra's Needles, one in London and one in New York. In 117 CE it still functioned as Alexandria's seat of imperial cult worship, its odd pairing of Ptolemaic temple and pharaonic monoliths overlooking the Great Harbor.
What happened here
The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.
Sources
Nearby
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Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →