Özge Kesgin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & license
Asklepion Sanctuary of Asclepius
A healing sanctuary founded for Asclepius in the fourth century BCE and rebuilt under Hadrian, with its colonnaded sacred way, library, and round temple.
The city approached it along the Via Tecta, about a kilometer long and colonnaded in its final stretch, ending at the propylon commissioned by Claudius Charax. The library hall to the right of the entrance, a theater for three thousand five hundred, and the round temple Rufinus raised around 150 in the manner of the Pantheon share one courtyard. Its cure was spoken in sacred water, mud baths, fasting, and sleep incubation reached by walking the vaulted passage.
Why visit
To read the healing sequence of colonnade, library, theater, and round temple inside a single courtyard.
Walk the stone paving of the colonnaded way before you pass the propylon into the courtyard, then follow the re-erected columns of the north stoa.
