Temple of Al-Lat
18 September 2024
The temple was dedicated in c. 123–164 A.D. The cult statue was made with an appearance similar to statues of the Greek goddess Athena in Athens.
The temple was closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire in a campaign made by Maternus Cynegius, Praetorian Prefect of Oriens, between 25 May 385 to 19 March 388, when the altar of the temple was destroyed and the cult statue of Allat-Athena was decapitated and had the center of its face crushed.
Only a podium, a few columns, and the door frame remain. Inside the compound, a giant lion relief, the Asad Al-Lat, was excavated and, in its original form, was a relief protruding from the temple compound’s wall.
