Ancient Temples
The temple at Olympus has always interested a lot of people. Olympus was where the gods were said to reside. One of the reasons the ancient Greeks believed their gods lived on Mount Olympus was the fact it was the highest mountain in Greece and therefore closest to paradise. It is a very remote location. The ancient Greeks believed twelve principal gods ruled the world from those lofty heights. Excavations are said to begin in the ancient city of Olympus in July 2020. The excavations will also extend to the acropolis and necropolis areas. The coronavirus had delayed these excavations which had originally been scheduled to start in March of the same year. By the time this article is published, the excavations may have already started. When we talk about ancient temples there is one which stands out from all the others, it is what we believe to be the oldest ancient temple in the world. The name of it is Gobekli Tepe. It is so old; it is believed to predate Stonehenge by at least 6000 years and many believe this has been underestimated and the temple is far older. When it was found, archaeologists could not believe how old it was, since it comes from a time when humans were said to be hunter gatherers and never stayed in one place very long. The carvings are incredible and have also surprised the archaeologists since they are very lifelike and consist of many representations of animals and other things. It is believed building this temple would have taken quite a long time, which means if humans were hunter gatherers, they would have had to stay in one place for very long time. Not only that, but some of the stones way 7 to 10 tons so again we have this mystery of how our ancient ancestors were able to move such heavy objects. The temple is located in Turkey, a country where many ancient ruins exist. It is believed this may have been the first time humans had settled down and conducted farming and the raising of animals. The temple of Amada is the oldest temple in Nubia. It was built by Pharaoh Thutmose III. His son continued the construction. Later on, during the Amarna period the name of Amun was destroyed throughout the temple. This didn’t last however and later was restored by Seti I. Other pharaoh’s along the way made various restorations to the temple and various reliefs of pharaoh’s and gods were painted on the walls. The eighteenth dynasty, when the temple was built spanned the years 1552 to 1292 BC. There is a megalithic temple complex on Malta. It is known as Ggantija and it is on the island of Gozo. Malta has some of the oldest construction in the world. This temple complex is older than the pyramids in Egypt. It has been estimated the temple complexes are more than 5500 years old which would make them almost the oldest temple complexes in the world which we have found so far, except for Gobekli Tepe. Numerous statues have been found at the site leading archaeologists to believe the site was a fertility site. Malta is a mysterious place and one of the biggest mysteries are tracks which are cut into the limestone on the island of Malta and Gozo. They are obviously man-made and evenly spaced in with. These ancient tracks seem to defy explanation. Another ancient temple complex on Malta is Hagar Qim. It is estimated to have been built somewhere between 3600 to 3200 BC. The world Heritage committee has declared it a World Heritage Site and stated it was a unique architectural masterpiece. Stones weighing many tons were used in its construction. When one looks at the façade of this temple, they can’t help but notice how well the stones fit together and how some of them have been carved. The interesting thing about this is the temple was built not only with huge stones but they were carved well before anybody had any iron tools. The temple of SETI I is a grand building. What we see today is only what remains in the complex, as much of the structures are in ruins or buried under the town of Qurna. This is a mortuary temple and in Egypt these were built close to the tombs of the pharaohs. The temple is located across from the Nile River and is near the modern city of Luxor. The Egyptians always seem to do things in a grand manner when it came to building structures. Some of the hieroglyphics have been removed and relocated in Karnak. Apparently, the ancient Egyptians left the plan of the layout. When we talk about ancient temples, one has to mention the Greek Parthenon. It is perhaps one of the most beautiful temples from antiquity. While nowhere near as old as those temples on Malta or some in Turkey it is still a marble of ancient construction. It was completed in 432 BC. It was partially destroyed in 1687 when it was used to store ammunition which exploded. In the early 1800s some of the surviving sculptures were removed. The Romans also had a temple called the Parthenon which was even newer, but still ancient by our standards. It still exists in Rome today and has been kept in beautiful condition. It has an incredible domed roof, marble floors and columns. The engineers who built it in 125 A.D. determined current methods for building a dome would have made the dome too heavy so they decided to use cups in the cement, which lightened the weight of the dome and to this day the dome is still standing and is almost 2000 years old. I have always said I thought the most incredible of all the ancient engineers were the Romans, and their buildings and constructions still stand testament to their ability to conquer nature and the elements. Can you imagine us building a structure that would last 2000 years?
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