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10 Oldest Temples In The World
These buildings are among the oldest man made structures found on Earth. They serve as a testimony to the gods and deities of cultures and civilizations long gone.
A temple is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions that erect temples include Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, the Baha’i Faith, Taoism, Shinto, Confucianism, and ancient religions such as the Ancient Egyptian religion and the Ancient Greek religion.
Temples have been built throughout the ages and many new ones open their doors every year. The ancient temples on this list, however, were built millenniums ago by people whose religion and belief systems are no longer practiced. These buildings are among the oldest man made structures found on Earth. They serve as a testimony to the gods and deities of cultures and civilizations long gone.
Would you like to discover some of the oldest temples in the world? RNN will take you on a journey through these enigmatic monuments!
1. Temple of Artemis
10 oldest temples in the world
The Temple of Artemis or Artemision, also known as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to an ancient, local form of the goddess Artemis identified with Diana, a Roman goddess. It was located in Ephesus near the modern town of Selçuk in present-day Turkey.
By 401 AD it had been ruined or destroyed. Only foundations and fragments of the last temple remain at the site. The earliest version of the temple antedated the Ionic immigration by many years. Callimachus, in his Hymn to Artemis, attributed it to the Amazons. In the 7th century BC, it was destroyed by a flood.
Its reconstruction, in a more grandiose form, began around 550 BC, under Chersiphron, the Cretan architect, and his son Metagenes. The project was funded by Croesus of Lydia and took 10 years to complete. This version of the temple was destroyed in 356 BC by an arsonist.
2. Gobekli Tepe
10 oldest temples in the world
Sometimes referred to as the first temple or oldest temple, Göbekli Tepe is a sanctuary built on a hilltop in southeastern Turkey. The houses or temples are round megalithic buildings while the walls are made of unworked dry stone and include numerous T-shaped monolithic pillars of limestone that are up to 3 meters (10 ft) high.
The site was erected by hunter-gatherers in the 10th millennium BC (!) making it by far the oldest human-made place of worship yet discovered. Göbekli Tepe not only predate pottery, and the invention of writing or the wheel but it was also built before the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandry.
3. Luxor Temple
10 oldest temples in the world
The Luxor Temple is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River in the city today known as Luxor and was constructed approximately 1400 BCE. In the Egyptian language, it was known as ipet resyt, “the southern sanctuary”. It was one of the two primary temples on the east bank, the other being Karnak. Unlike the other temples in Thebes, Luxor temple is not dedicated to a cult god or a deified version of the pharaoh in death.
Instead, Luxor temple is dedicated to the rejuvenation of kingship; it may have been where many of the pharaohs of Egypt were crowned in reality or conceptually as in the case of Alexander the Great, who claimed he was crowned at Luxor but may never have traveled south of Memphis, near modern Cairo.
4. Ggantija Temples
10 oldest temples in the world
Ġgantija is a megalithic temple complex from the Neolithic era, on the Mediterranean island of Gozo in Malta. The Ġgantija temples are the earliest of the Megalithic Temples of Malta and are older than the pyramids of Egypt.
The temples are elements of a ceremonial site used in a fertility rite. Researchers have found that the numerous figurines and statues found on site are associated with that cult. According to local Gozitan folklore, a giantess who ate nothing but broad beans and honey bore a child from a man of the common people. With the child hanging from her shoulder, she built these temples and used them as places of worship.
5. Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut
10 oldest temples in the world
The Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt from around 1479 BC until her death in 1458 BC, is situated beneath the cliffs at Deir el Bahari on the west bank of the Nile. It is a colonnaded structure, which was designed and implemented by Senemut, the royal architect of Hatshepsut, to serve for her posthumous worship and to honor the glory of Amun.
The temple is built into a cliff face that rises sharply above it and consists of three layered terraces reaching 30 meters in height. These terraces are connected by long ramps which were once surrounded by gardens.
6. Tarxien Temples
10 oldest temples in the world
The Tarxien Temples are an archaeological complex in Tarxien, Malta. They date to approximately 3150 BC. The site was accepted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992 along with the other Megalithic temples on the island of Malta.
7. Borobudur
10 oldest temples in the world
Borobudur, also transcribed as Barabudur is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang Regency, not far from the city of Magelang and the town of Muntilan, in Central Java, Indonesia. It is the world’s largest Buddhist temple. The temple consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a central dome. It is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and originally 504 Buddha statues. The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated stupa.
Built-in the 9th century during the reign of the Sailendra Dynasty, the temple design follows Javanese Buddhist architecture, which blends the Indonesian indigenous tradition of ancestor worship and the Buddhist concept of attaining nirvāṇa. The temple demonstrates the influences of Gupta art that reflect India’s influence on the region, yet there are enough indigenous scenes and elements incorporated to make Borobudur uniquely Indonesian. The monument is a shrine to the Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage.
8. Stonehenge
10 oldest temples in the world
One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones in southwest England. Stonehenge was produced by a culture that left no written records so many aspects of Stonehenge remain subject to debate.
Evidence indicates that the iconic stone monument was erected around 2500 BC while the last known construction at Stonehenge was about 1600 BC. The gigantic stones may have come from a quarry, around 40 kilometers north of Stonehenge on the Marlborough Downs.
It is not known for certain what purpose Stonehenge served, but many scholars believe the monument was used as a ceremonial or religious center. Today, it is a popular tourist destination in England, and Stonehenge tours are available from several English cities.
9. Parthenon
10 oldest temples in the world
The Parthenon is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of classical Greek art, an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, democracy, and Western civilization.
The Parthenon was built in thanksgiving for the Hellenic victory over Persian Empire invaders during the Greco-Persian Wars. Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon also served as the city treasury.
10. Mahabodhi Temple
10 oldest temples in the world
The Mahabodhi Temple is an ancient but rebuilt and restored Buddhist temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India, marking the location where the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment. Bodh Gaya is 15 km from Gaya and about 96 kilometers from Patna. The site contains a descendant of the Bodhi Tree under which the Buddha gained enlightenment and has been a major pilgrimage destination for Buddhists for over two thousand years.
The main temple’s survival is especially impressive, as it was mostly made of brick covered with stucco, materials that are much less durable than stone. However, it is understood that very little of the original sculptural decoration has survived.
The temple complex includes two large straight-sided shikhara towers, the largest over 180 feet high. This is a stylistic feature that has continued in Jain and Hindu temples to the present day, and influenced Buddhist architecture in other countries, in forms like the pagoda.
10 Oldest Temples In The World
1. Temple of Artemis
2. Gobekli Tepe
3. Luxor Temple
4. Ggantija Temples
5. Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut
6. Tarxien Temples
7. Borobudur
8. Stonehenge
9. Parthenon
10. Mahabodhi Temple
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