Most of them were built to face the rising Sun

Nov 25, 2009 16:21 GMT  ·  By
The vast majority of Greek temples in Sicily is facing East. Researchers wonder why
   The vast majority of Greek temples in Sicily is facing East. Researchers wonder why

While conducting a survey of Ancient Greek temples built in the Italian island of Sicily, expert Dr. Alun Salt found that only three of them were constructed in positions that did not make them face the rising Sun. The scientist, who is an astronomy technician at the University of Leicester's Center for Interdisciplinary Science, found this peculiar, and decided to investigate the matter even further. He believes that this knowledge could be used to gain new insight into the way Ancient Greeks went about worshipping their gods.

The researcher is basically suggesting that the old Greek settlers carried with them an “astronomical fingerprint,” which separated their temples from those originally on the island. It also became obvious in the survey that differences existed between the way the Greeks built their own structures, and the way people who adopted the settlers' tradition while also maintaining their own culture did. This type of cultural exchange was fairly common at the time, especially considering the fact that the only contact civilizations had with each other was usually either through trade, or war. It would then make sense to learn something about the friends you were trading with.

The thing about ancient temples is that they were not necessarily a symbol of what people actually believed, or the gods being worshipped, although some indications that this mattered do exist. Rather, the structures were meant as a political and economic statement, Salt argues. The researcher believes that the new findings may help settle a long-standing debate in the international historian and archaeological communities. Details of his work appear in the latest issue of the open-access scientific journal PLoS ONE, a publication of the Public Library of Science.

“There are quite a few temples in Greece which don't face sunrise. So a few archaeologists have suggested that there is nothing significant about the number that face east. The problem is that no one has ever said what a 'significant number' would be,” Salt says. “The situation with temples in Greece is quite complicated. It would be like spinning a roulette wheel and finding that half the time the ball bounces out of the wheel. But when it does land, 90% of the time it'll be on red. That looks odd to me,” he further explains. In the case of the Ancient Greek temples in Sicily, the situation was even more pronounced. Only one in 41 temples was found to be facing West.

“What's really interesting are the temples which don't fit. The temple of Hekate, a lunar goddess, at Selinous faces west. If every other temple in Sicily faces east, then what is special about that one?” Salt concludes.