Ptolemaion - Limyra 3rd Century BC

In the third century BC, Limyra was under the rule of the Ptolemaios of Egypt and the Limyrians constructed this structure which was dedicated to the memory of the Ptolemaios family. It is a circular temple, upon a square podium, encircled by columns. Consisted of seven and eight courses on a square foundation, the podium is about 10 m high. Finds of pieces of the taneia (a narrow, long stripe), regular (small stripe) and gutae (droplets like pin heads) are from the wall architraves. There is a metope-triglyph frieze extending above the epistyle (the architrave). On the twelve metops on the northern side, a "Kentauromachi" (the victory of Lapiths over the Centaurs) is depicted. There was a chariot race frieze above the door and windows of the peripheral, annulus shaped structure. The podium was encircled by extended fringes. On the piece at the base of this there are mutuli (small panels) adorned with guttae (droplets) and splendid palmette motifs at the corner. The joint holes on the corner blocks and on the fringe blocks next to them indicate there were carved figures and sculptures that were free standing upon this podium.

There were the sacred sculptures depicting the Ptolemaios in the structure, about 2.70 meters high. Colossal sculptures of lions were located on the corners of the podium to guard the temple, which are related to the lions of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and the lion-griffons of the Belevi Mausoleion. Their heads are turned arrogantly towards the outside, while running rapidly towards the corners. On top of this imposing podium base, a circular structure was erected encircled by the cella columns, with the door and windows probably oriented towards the east. The top of the opening between the cella wall and the columns was covered by a coffered roof adorned with painted rosettes. Even if a prominent example of the Doric style of architecture, there are native elements of the Ionic style. There are three fascias and an Ionian egg frieze on the outer surface of the architrave blocks and two fascias on the inner surface. The sections behind were made to house the coffered ceiling blocks. The sofits on the lower surfaces of the architrave blocks were adorned with painted Lesbos kymations. The third architectural style, i.e., the Corinthian appears on the center acroteriums of the circular roof, adorned by snake scales. These snakes, probably poisonous snakes of Egypt lie between acanthus leaves on the base line, having an apotropaic, a protective function. This type of structure can be defined as a naos of the Hellenistic Cult of the Emperors.