Researchers in Spain report that they have located the lost Temple of Hercules Gaditanus, considered one of the “holy grails” of archeology. The massive structure is reported to be near the Atlantic port city of Cádiz in southwest Spain.
The temple is significant not only for its religious importance but also as a location of architectural development and experimentation that created a model for temples and similar sanctuaries for centuries afterward. The temple is possibly where the tripartite structure of central rings with an inner holy of holies was developed.
According to ancient sources, the Temple of Hercules was a major pilgrimage site in antiquity for Greeks and Romans that attracted visitors the likes of Emperor Julius Caesar and the Carthaginian general Hannibal. Caesar is said to have wept at the temple when he feared his life’s works would never equal those of his hero, Alexander the Great. General Scipio Africanus worshiped at the temple prior to destroying Carthage after Hannibal’s famous assault on Italy with elephants crossing the Alps.
Hercules was the son of the Olympian supreme deity Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. The Romans adopted the iconography and stories of the Greeks into their own art and literature. He is famous for his 12 labors and subsequent apotheosis, including his representation in a constellation. He was widely venerated by Greeks and Romans and continues to be venerated by many Pagan faiths.
Hercules became a common figure in Renaissance and post-Renaissance art and continues to influence even 20th century works, such as those of Jeff Koons and Robert Mapplethorpe.
Hercules and the Hydra (c. 1475) by Antonio del Pollaiuolo [Public Domain]
The Temple of Hercules Gaditanus, also called the Temple of Melkart-Herakles, was built as early as the eighth century B.C.E. Ancient records refer to it as the treasure of the Phoenician city of Gadir, the most important city of that ancient empire on the Iberian Peninsula. The city was on the southern coast of Iberian Peninsula and the precise location of the city and temple were lost to time.
The temple sanctuary likely began as a small shrine and grew in importance over time as the city of Gadir expanded. However, the importance of the temple and its location were attested by Roman authors whose works span from the first century B.C.E to the fifth century C.E. Arabic sources later described a ruined tower and temple structure.
Previous research focused on the site of the temple as the Levant, but four decades of earlier research essentially excluded the region. However, Ricardo Belizón Aragón, a Ph.D. student at Seville University, used terrain modeling software and identified traces of a monumental structure in Bay of Cádiz in Andalusia, Spain, between the towns of Chiclana de Frontera and San Fernando. The structure was found in a shallow channel of the bay called the Caño de Sancti Petri. The area includes a saltwater marsh.
Belizón Aragón’s hypothesis about the temple structure is now backed by researchers at his university and the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage. He initially set out to investigate the ancient coastal geography of Cádiz. He used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) surveys to identify changes in sediment structures of the ancient coastlines. He said that their “objective was to trace the paleolandscape back 3,000 years in an area that has been very exposed to sea oscillations.”
The scans showed something else, though: a large rectangular structure. His doctoral research immediately took a drastic turn. He and other researchers suggested the temple might be the famous one of Hercules.
Francisco José García, the director of the department of prehistory and archaeology at Seville University, said during the presentation of findings at the Cádiz Center for Underwater Archaeology in December, “We researchers are very reluctant to turn archaeology into a spectacle, but in this case, we are faced with some spectacular findings. They are of great significance.”
The researchers noted that the LiDAR data has “revealed the existence in antiquity of an environment totally different from the one assumed so far: a new coastal landscape and a coastline that has been highly anthropized since ancient times, with the presence of possible breakwaters, large buildings and even a possible dock port closed.”
LiDAR scans of the Cádiz site revealed a rectangular structure that matches descriptions of the ancient temple. [University of Seville]
The researchers noted that the structure “may have a correlation with the information that ancient authors such as Strabo, Silio Italic or Philostratus provide about the Sanctuary of Melqart and Hercules,” and added that it “must be investigated in depth to reconstruct the history of the area and determine the chronology, typology and uses of each of the detected structures.”
However, not everyone is convinced the new findings identify the Temple of Hercules. Some experts are skeptical. They say the location of the temple is more likely elsewhere. One of these is Antonio Monterroso-Checa, an archaeologist whose 2020 study concluded that the temple is most likely located in nearby San Fernando on the Hill of the Martyrs. The site is also in Cádiz. He referred to the current findings as “a triangulation error.”
The Seville investigators said that there will be continued research on the site. More filed work is required, and the local conditions create challenges that include murky waters and poor visibility.
The researchers say they will continue their investigation nonetheless. “Future research will focus on conducting archaeological surveys (terrestrial and underwater), specific documentary and geoarchaeological studies and paleoenvironmental sampling,” they said. “All this aimed, in an interdisciplinary way, to promote the knowledge of our past, and to the protection and enhancement of some exceptional archaeological remains that allow Andalusian society to know and enjoy a singularly remarkable aspect of its history, and that This may have a positive impact on the economic and social development of Andalusia.”
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