diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 001e8d05de7491aac14da4413cd5afb3daaba732..a8e2ca2a47b8ca3edcedb87d118b114fd8d51c88 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -29,6 +29,9 @@
   was causing tags to compile with 
   case-insensitive names, thus messing up
   custom <%call> names. [ticket:108]
+
+- added "mako.__version__" attribute to
+  the base module.  [ticket:110]
   
 0.2.4
 - Fixed compatibility with Jython 2.5b1.
diff --git a/doc/build/genhtml.py b/doc/build/genhtml.py
index 59eb6eb7117742c38b7095b856a85a119580b6bf..5c8431c8e00fcd1003d87fc03c164720fcc78734 100644
--- a/doc/build/genhtml.py
+++ b/doc/build/genhtml.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import cPickle as pickle
 sys.path = ['../../lib', './lib/'] + sys.path
 
 from mako.lookup import TemplateLookup
-from mako import exceptions
+from mako import exceptions, __version__ as version
 
 import read_markdown, toc
 
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ files = [
     ]
 
 title='Mako Documentation'
-version = '0.2.3'
 
 root = toc.TOCElement('', 'root', '', version=version, doctitle=title)
 
diff --git a/lib/mako/__init__.py b/lib/mako/__init__.py
index adced7f40d264d17347ea3851f597bddcad59f27..43cb853c6ee4615b849355d7650fe805c1a81bbf 100644
--- a/lib/mako/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/mako/__init__.py
@@ -4,3 +4,6 @@
 # This module is part of Mako and is released under
 # the MIT License: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
 
+
+__version__ = '0.2.5'
+
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a3f125af6d30a88c4d7a1983b3fc45f20a984551..1b1184dacd39bdeea41274e0028eccfdac822a15 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
+import os
+import re
 
-version = '0.2.5'
+v = file(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'lib', 'mako', '__init__.py'))
+VERSION = re.compile(r".*__version__ = '(.*?)'", re.S).match(v.read()).group(1)
+v.close()
 
 setup(name='Mako',
-      version=version,
+      version=VERSION,
       description="A super-fast templating language that borrows the \
  best ideas from the existing templating languages.",
       long_description="""\