Editing Melqart (section)

===Temple sites===
[[Image:Estatuillas votivas del templo de Hércules Gaditano.jpg|thumb|Votive statues from the Temple of Melqart in [[Cadiz]]]]
{{See also|Temple of Hercules Gaditanus}}
Temples to Melqart are found at at least three Phoenician/Punic sites in Spain: Cádiz, Ibiza in the [[Balearic Islands]] and Cartagena. Near Gades/Gádeira (modern [[Cádiz]]) was the westernmost temple of Tyrian Heracles, near the eastern shore of the island ([[Strabo]] 3.5.2&ndash;3). Strabo notes (3.5.5&ndash;6) that the two bronze pillars within the temple, each 8 cubits high, were widely proclaimed to be the true [[Pillars of Heracles]] by many who had visited the place and had sacrificed to Heracles there. Strabo believes the account to be fraudulent, in part noting that the inscriptions on those pillars mentioned nothing about Heracles, speaking only of the expenses incurred by the Phoenicians in their making.

Another temple to Melqart was at Ebyssus ([[Ibiza]]), in one of four Phoenician sites on the island's south coast. In 2004 a highway crew in the Avinguda Espanya, (one of the main routes into Ibiza), uncovered a further Punic temple in the excavated roadbed. Texts found mention Melqart among other Punic gods Eshmun, Astarte and Baʻl.

Another Iberian temple to Melqart has been identified at [[Carthago Nova]] ([[Cartagena, Spain|Cartagena]]). The Tyrian god's protection extended to the sacred promontory ([[Cape Saint Vincent]]) of the Iberian peninsula, the westernmost point of the known world, ground so sacred it was forbidden even to spend the night.

Another temple to Melqart was at [[Lixus (ancient city)|Lixus]], on the Atlantic coast of [[Morocco]].