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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 8199857, member: 128351&quot;]In fact this is not a temple, it represents the niche which was in the interior of a temple and was its focal point, the most sacred place. These niches were set in an architectural frame with double columns with smaller niches and statues between them and an arched pediment at the top. The niche contained the statue of the Tyche.</p><p><br /></p><p>In Syria some Roman temples with similar niches were preserved in the 19th c. well enough to be photographed and drawn. For example the &quot;Tychaion&quot; (temple of Tyche) of as-Sanamayn in South Syria :</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1436699[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">Reconstructed plan of the Tychaion at as-Sanamayn</font></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1436700[/ATTACH] <font size="3">Façade (note the two niches flanking the monumental door) and inside view of the Tychaion, restored elevations by Howard Crosby Butler (1909). The dotted blocks are those Butler actually saw on the spot, the white ones are restitutions.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>Not far from there at Mismiyyeh, South Syria, there was in the 19th c. another temple which has been destroyed since to build barracks for the Ottoman garrison. Here is an old photograph of its façade, you may recognise the two niches flanking the monumental doorway :</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1436701[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">19th c. photo of a Roman temple in Mismiyyeh, Syria</font></p><p><br /></p><p>Same kind of niche in Shaqqa (South Syria too), flanking the monumental entrance of the temple:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1436705[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>It is likely that in Aelia Capitolina too, like in almost every city in the whole region, there was a similar temple dedicated to the local Tyche. It was probably constructed following more or less the same model as all other temples of Tyche in the region. </p><p><br /></p><p>These framed and decorated niches containing the statue were the focal point of the temple. It is why they are depicted on coins more often than the façade of the temple on the profane street. There was the same kind of focal niche flanked by columns in the synagogue of Dura Europos (3rd c. AD); of course the Jews did not put a statue in it, but probably the Torah. These niches were so sacred that they were adopted by Muslims: in mosques they are called <i>mirhab </i>and the people pray in their direction which is supposed to be the direction of the Kaaba.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1436704[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">Mirhab of the Ibn Tulun mosque, Cairo. </font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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