Today was our final day in Ankara before heading back to Istanbul. On our way to the Temple of Augustus we stopped by a Mosque right next to it. The Hacı Bayram Mosque is a popular pilgrimage sight so it will frequently overflow to the outdoor mosque right outside!
| Outdoor mosque of the Hacı Bayram Mosque. |
At first, the Temple of Augustus appears to be right next to the Hacı Bayram Mosque, but it actually shares a wall. There could be many reasons for this, it could have saved the builders materials, could have helped to support the temple, or maybe they desired to add to or change the history. It’s likely that not just one reason led to this, but it’s fun to speculate!
| Joint wall of the Temple of Augustus and the Hacı Bayram Mosque. |
A little about the Temple of Augustus…
It was built between 25 and 20 BC and has an inscription of a first person eulogy that makes it clear Augustus wanted to create his own narrative and be remembered highly. Not only did the eulogy talk of his military might, but also of his generosity which was considered just as important in the ancient world. This eulogy is interesting because it was not just placed on this temple, but also on his tomb in Rome, as well as several other locations. This shows the spread of the Roman Empire in the 1st century as well as the top tier PR that was done by the Roman Empire. The inscription in Ankara is actually the best maintained of all the locations. The eulogy runs along the entire temple and is written in both Greek and Latin so that all people could read it as one was the language of the people, and one was the language of the government.
| Temple of Augustus |
We next stopped at the Roman baths near the Temple of Augustus. We were able to walk around what would have been the palestra that is now outlined by funerary monuments. The baths and dressing rooms were in excellent condition, and we were able to see how they utilized heated flooring!
| Roman bath. |
| Heated floor! |
Our last stop before heading to the airport was the old parliament building. Parliament was established on April 23rd, 1920…a day that is now celebrated and called Children’s Day. We were also able to see the desk where Atatürk officially declared the war of independence.
| Inside of parliament. |
| Desk mentioned above. |
We spent the rest of the day traveling and we made it to our hotel in New Istanbul!
Here are some bonus animal pictures for getting to the bottom!!
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