A team of international researchers has unearthed the remains of a 2,400-year-old sanctuary in the ancient city of Cyrene, Libya. Identified as the Temple of the Silver Dove, the site was dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite and served as a major center for maritime ritual before the city's eventual decline. The discovery occurred during a subsurface survey of the city's unexplored eastern quadrant.
The most striking find at the site includes a series of intact marble votives and a unique sacrificial altar decorated with silver-inlaid avian motifs. This discovery provides new insights into the Hellenistic religious practices of North Africa and the specific cultic associations of Aphrodite as a protector of seafarers in the Mediterranean. Excavators also found a cache of ancient coins that help date the temple's peak activity to the late 4th century BCE.