Archaeology & History

'Hand of Hercules' belonged to 40ft statue

By T.K. Randall
November 9, 2015 ·  13 comments

All that remains of a once mighty statue. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Deror_avi Located in the city of Amman, the Temple of Hercules, which was originally constructed between 162 and 166 AD during the Roman occupation, was an undeniably impressive building for its time.

While it was never entirely finished, what was there exceeded the size of any temple in Rome - a structure fit for the hero to whom it was dedicated. Measuring 100ft long and 85ft wide, the temple was surrounded by six 33-foot-tall columns and an outer sanctum over 400ft across.

While unfortunately most of the structure now lies in ruins, one of the most curious things still left at the site is a large marble hand which, having only three digits, seems suspiciously out of place.Archaeologists now believe that this disembodied limb would have once belonged to a gigantic 40ft marble statue of Hercules that stood beside the temple.

Its size would have made it one of the largest marble statues ever to exist anywhere in the world.

With most of its remains now missing from the site however - no doubt having been used in antiquity as building materials - the statue's original appearance has since long been lost in the mists of time.

Source: Slate.com | Comments (13)

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