English: This temple formed the center and nucleus of the city. All that remains of the ancient temple consists of fourteen of the forty Ionic columns that once surrounded it and the foundations of the cella section. Although the cult center dates back to earlier times the temple here was begun in the 1st century BC and is thought to have been completed by Augustus.

The temple precinct was completed in the 2nd century during the reign of Hadrian.

Like other temples to Aphrodite, this one can be presumed to have fulfilled a therapeutic sexual role, prostitution being a feature of the Aphrodite cult practiced by priestesses and female temple slaves.

In the 5th century the Byzantines converted the pagan temple into a three-aisle basilica. Two centuries later the town was renamed Stavropolis (City of the Cross), severing the links to its pagan past.