Ancient Greeks and Romans, including the famous dictator Julius Caesar, are said to have traveled to a temple in the Bay of Cádiz, Spain and prayed for strength from the god Hercules – and archaeologists believe they found ruins of the legendary shrine.
It is also known as Temple of Hercules Gaditanus. Archaeologists think that a group of submerged structures may be the temple.
Researchers at Seville University in southern Spain located traces of a monumental building in the Sancti Petri channel, a coastal and intertidal area of the Bay of Cádiz between Chiclana de la Frontera and San Fernando using Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR).
The technology employs remote sensing to analyze the Earth’s surface. This involves firing lasers at the ground to measure the return time of the reflected sunlight to the receiver.
This rectangular structure measures 984 feet by 492 feet and is approximately the same size as the original temple island.
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This rectangular structure measures 984 feet in length by 492 feet in width, and is identical to the one where the temple used to be.
According to legend, the Temple of Hercules Gaditanus was a columned temple that contained an everlasting flame. This fire is lit on an altar and maintained by priests day and night.
Frontispiece between columns shows twelve Hercules labors in bronze.
Hercules did the twelve labors to pay for the murder of Megara, his wife, and five of their children.
Offerings were placed inside the columns, while the temple itself would have been set on a raised slab plinth.
It is believed that the Temple of Hercules Gaditanus consisted of a columned temple with an endless flame. The fire was lit by an altar. Priests kept it burning day and night. Frontispiece between columns shows twelve Hercules labors, in bronze
Hercules did the 12 labors to pay for the murder of Megara his wife and five children. Pictured is Hercules slaying a dragon while taking the three Golden Apples from the Garden of the Hesperides, one of his twelve labors
According to El Pais, the Latin and Greek records confirm that this was the spot where Julius Caesar wept before Alexander the Great. It is also where Hannibal, the Carthaginian conqueror, went to give thanks for his victory in the military war a century earlier.
Now, it is possible that the mythical temple has been located after many centuries of diligent searching.
The latest radar technology was used to find the traces and photographs of the Phoenician-Roman building found in Sancti Petri, Spain. It is believed to be the temple of Hercules.
Milagros Alzaga García, head of the Andalusian Institute’s Centre for Aquatic Archaeology, said in a statement: ‘The documentary sources we analyzed, the archaeological information together with the images obtained with digital models of the site, lead us to believe that this could be the mythical temple of Hercules.’
The latest radar technology was used to find the traces and photographs of the Phoenician-Roman building found in Sancti Petri, Spain. It is believed to be the temple of Hercules.
Along with spotting the potential site of the temple, the team may have also uncovered an inner harbor or dock south of the temple, which was a flood zone until less than two centuries ago.
The Romans had a crucial settlement here along the coast.
important settling along the coast with various buildings mainly from the Roman period yet to be defined. Altogether, it covers a large space – larger than the entire excavated area of the Roman city of Baelo Claudia in Tarifa.
HERCULES VS. HYDRA
According to Greek mythology, Hercules was confused by the goddess Hera and made to kill his wife and their children.
After he had regained consciousness from the temporary insanity, he asked for assistance from the gods.
He was sentenced to 12 hours of labor as part of the punishment. These were difficult tasks that would have been almost impossible for him to finish.
Hydra, a nine-headed serpent that engulfed Hydra was the second feat.
According to Greek mythology, Hercules was confused by the goddess Hera and his wife and children were killed.
Hercules attacked many heads of the Hydra with his club. But as soon as one head was destroyed, another one grows in its place. However, his nephew helped him defeat the beast.
Iolaus held the torch to the neck’s tendons, while Hercules threw one of the hydras’ heads.
Hercules prevailed over the beast after the flames stopped the growth of replacement heads.
After he’d destroyed eight of the mortal heads, Hercules cut off the immortal ninth head and placed it in a separate grave from the serpent’s body.