The so-called Hadrian’s Temple is one of the most prominent monuments in the Roman city of Ephesus in modern Turkey. An up-to-date architectural documentation is the basis of a new research project dedicated to the structure. This paper addresses the aims and needs from the perspective of architectural historians and the existing conditions for this undertaking. It also discusses the different systems of 3D surface scanning, which were employed for this task: fringe projection and 3D laser scanning based on phase shifting. Both methods are ideally suited to record certain areas of the temple, with respect to the desired resolution and the scale of the documentation. Certain post processing steps lead to the final result. These are still two-dimensional ortho-projections that can be published in a monograph or book.