File:The reconstructed Harbour Temple, Xanten, Germany (8178276947).jpg

After the Capitol the Harbour Temple was the second largest temple in the town. It is not known to which deity it was dedicated. Owing to its location, the excavators gave it the name of Harbour Temple. Halls surrounded the sacred precinct. The temple towered above the town wall. For people arriving it impressed in its size, opulence and colour as a monument of Roman architectural achievement and urban culture. The documentation in the interior of the podium (entrance at the rear) gives information about the temple, the construction techniques and the reconstruction, its decoration and the working of the cult. Owing the proximity of the river-bank, the construction base was especially protected. At first the construction trench was excavated, after which the subsoil was strengthened with piles driven into the earth. Finally the construction trench was reinforced to the size of the foundations. A thick shuttering was built right around, consisting of posts as high as a man, interwoven with brushwood.

The Harbour Temple has been partly reconstructed. Only one corner of the temple has been built up to the roof; it contains all the constitutional elements which have been properly attested. One column gives an impression of the colouration of the building in Roman times. The reconstruction is a model to the scale of 1:1. As every model, it need to exactly correspond to the original.

The foundation-platform allowed the archaeological reconstruction of the temple. During the existence of the ancient building it was hidden below ground-level. It formed the lower foundation and supported further solid foundation layers as well as the podium. Today the upper part of the foundation is covered by a concrete hall, which allows admittance to the foundation platform. In its extent the hall corresponds to the size of the antique podium.