Caesareum of Alexandria

Caesareum
General information
Status	Destroyed
Type	Built as a temple; converted to a Christian church (late-4th century)
Town or city	Alexandria
Country	Egypt
Completed	1st century BC
Renovated	4th century (converted to Christian church)
Destroyed	19th century
Design and construction
Client	• Cleopatra VII (started)  • Augustus (finished)

The Caesareum in Alexandria was a temple conceived by Cleopatra VII, the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, either to honour her dead lover Marc Antony, a Roman politician and general, or Julius Caesar. It was finished by Augustus, after he defeated Antony and Cleopatra. He destroyed all traces of Antony in Alexandria, and apparently dedicated the temple to his own cult.

Converted to a Christian church in the late 4th century, the Caesareum was the headquarters of Cyril of Alexandria, the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444.

The philosopher and mathematician Hypatia was murdered at the Caesareum by a Christian mob; they stripped her naked and tore her to pieces.

It is rumoured that Cleopatra committed suicide at the Caesareum in BC30.

Elements of the temple survived until the 19th century. Cleopatra's Needles, obelisks from the temple, now stand in Central Park in New York City and on the Thames Embankment, in London;.

Today, a large statue of the Alexandrine nationalist leader Saad Zaghloul (1859–1927) stands on the Caesareum site.

See also

• 1st century BC in architecture
• Ancient Egyptian architecture
• History of Alexandria