Upper terrace

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In the early 3rd century BC the upper terrace of the sanctuary was laid out, 11 m. higher than the middle one, to which led a monumental staircase 38.15 m. wide. The first architectural arrangements are dated to the first half of the 3rd century BC. It was then that the precinct wall (peribolos) was built of poros blocks, creating a court measuring 80x60 m. and open towards the middle terrace. Not long after, the precinct walls were replaced by a wooden fenced stoa, which was used as a dormitory for incubation (enkoimises). The enkoimeterion, which was 6 m. deep and of overall length 177 m., could accommodate the largest number of visitors. It is suspected that at the centre of the terrace stood a temple, to which the excavators of the sanctuary attributed the poros architectural members found under the Roman temple on the middle terrace. Monumental installations were erected on the terrace in the 2nd century BC, when the Asklepieion was placed under the protection of the king of Pergamon, Eumenes ll (197-159 BC). His reign saw the building of the large temple of Asklepios (170/160 BC) and, slightly Iater, the marble stoa in the Doric order, which replaced the wooden enkoimeterion. The Doric peripteral temple of marble occupied the central axis of the terrace. It was orientated northwards, in the opposite direction to the norm, had no altar and was no more than 8 m. high. This temple was an imitation of the 4th century BC temple in the Asklepieion of Epidauros, but the dimensions of the Coan version are augmented conspicuously by one-third (Epidauros: 11.76x23.09 m., Cos: 15.96x31.17 m.). The enlargement of the temple is due to the Coans’ competitive attitude towards the kindred sanctuary.
Thanks to its outstanding position, with its front facing the monumental staircase and the square of the altar on the middle terrace, the temple is not an independent entity but is the crowning glory of the ensemble of escalated installations, offering the visitor to the Asklepieion the climax of the locus sanctus.