Templum Melqarti, Tyri
About
Phoenicia's most sacred temple, built for the god-king Melqart under King Hiram in the 10th century BCE and known even to Herodotus, who described its two pillars, one gold and one of glowing emerald-green glass. Alexander besieged Tyre for seven months in 332 BCE partly because its priests refused him the right to sacrifice inside. Romans equated Melqart with Hercules and kept the cult running. In 117 CE the thousand-year-old sanctuary still anchored one of Rome's wealthiest Phoenician cities.
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
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 →