Temple of Augustus and Rome

The Temple of Augustus and Rome in Ankara is one of the best-preserved Roman temples in Anatolia, standing in the Ulus district beside Hacı Bayram Mosque. The site was originally a sanctuary dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele, rebuilt and rededicated around 25 BC in honour of Augustus and the divine Rome following the annexation of the Galatian kingdom into the Roman province of Galatia. The building follows the Corinthian order; substantial sections of the naos walls and pronaos facade survive to near-original height, though the roof and most free-standing columns are lost. The temple's most historically significant feature is the Monumentum Ancyranum — the inscription of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Augustus's autobiographical testament cataloguing his achievements, donations to the Roman people, and political honours received. The Latin text is inscribed on the inner wall of the pronaos; a parallel Greek translation runs on the outer wall of the cella. This is the most complete surviving copy of the document, and its scholarly study dates to 1555 when Habsburg ambassador Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq first recorded the text. The temple shares a structural wall with Hacı Bayram Mosque, erected directly against the Roman masonry in the early 15th century. The resulting physical adjacency of a Roman temple and an Ottoman mosque is one of the most striking historical juxtapositions in Turkey, legible in the street plan and masonry of the surrounding quarter. The site is administered by the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, and admission is covered by the museum ticket. Access is via a short covered walkway from the museum entrance. Bilingual Turkish and English interpretive panels are installed at the viewing area.