Sanctuary of Daphne

The Sanctuary of Daphne stood on a wooded plateau of springs and waterfalls south of Antioch. Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid dynasty, built there the Daphneion, an Apollo temple housing a statue by the sculptor Bryaxis and a renowned oracle.

Further temples were raised to Zeus Olympios, Artemis, Aphrodite and Isis, and Antiochus IV held a military review at Daphne in 166 BC. Under Roman rule Titus built a theatre from the spoils of Jerusalem.

In 351 the Caesar Constantius Gallus placed a church holding the relics of Saint Babylas beside the temple. When the emperor Julian restored the shrine in 362 he blamed the relics for silencing the oracle and had them removed; days later fire destroyed the temple and statue, and the temple was never rebuilt. Khosrow I's Persian army sacked Daphne in 540, and after the Arab conquest of the seventh century the site was gradually abandoned.