IN light of the potential and exciting unearthing of a second temple at Eskikoy by the German archaeologists this week, Voices columnist Glenn Maffia suggests there could be strong evidence of a third Roman temple yet to be discovered

VIGILANCE is a word not often displayed these days; eyes may interpret a vision of this world, though imagination suffused with the comforting and disciplined restraints of knowledge sees so much more.

It is not a gift given to all, simply because too many do not have the time, yet alone the inclination, to dwell upon such matters.

Fortunately time is no longer a concern of mine, while a partiality for amassing historical and artistic information has always been in my blood.

Therefore, while ambling around the Temple following the excellent work being performed by the archaeologists an idea sprung fully formed into my mind’s eye.

Apollo’s temple faces a north-east direction, possibly to align with the constellation of Gemini (meaning ‘twins’ in Latin), the temple identified last year, which I and many of the archaeologists are calling Artemis (Apollo’s twin sister), rests facing on the conventional due east axis.

A light went on in my head; is there anything where these lines of axis cross?

As far as I know no archaeology, at least not recent, has been done in that direction.

So momentarily leaving the thought of an ice cold beer on a swelteringly hot day behind, I began to saunter about in between the broken and twisted remains of the old Greek houses, and newer illegal ones.

The duel Ionic columns of Apollo’s temple prove a very useful point of reference as they climb so elegant and high into the streaming blue sky.

It was sweet to see two early teens awkwardly engaged in the preliminaries of courtship, their hands quickly unclasped when, with a sudden jolt, they sensed me walking along (don’t worry I will not tell anyone).

One of the features of early Christianity, to usurp the previous dominant ideology, was to build a place of worship directly over a pagan site.

Quite logical really, for if one destroys an ancient site revered previously, old believers would eventually lose their cultural identity. Ethnic cleansing is nothing new, well, not to monotheistic beliefs anyway.

So a Christian site would be a good pointer to a Roman construction lying beneath.

I turned a corner and wham! How obvious, how glaring, as plain as the nose on Cyrano de Bergerac’s face.

There it was staring at me, beckoning as large as life and twice as ugly. The renovated chapel standing in luxuriously well watered gardens.

I checked my visual bearings by turning to Apollo’s columns. No doubt about it, this line cuts right through the renovated site.

Now does Artemis’ temple also intersect with Apollo’s at this point? It certainly appears to.

I tracked my way through the back streets to the mosque, which stands next to the temple of Artemis, and could find no discrepancy with my initial conclusion.

I spoke to a senior archaeologist about my theory, which startled him, for evidently since the identification of the newly found temple last year no one has thought to look for, nor have even considered, another important Roman building at this intersection of these two axes.

We shall inspect it together, with hopefully the Director of Archaeology in the next few days.

I have a pretty shrewd idea of what lies beneath this chapel, but more of that later.