Many of the world’s best known landmarks have been inspired by faith. And today more worshippers than ever are flocking to these sacred places. But why do they continue to provoke such passion? Hundreds of years after they were first built, many of these places remain of deep spiritual significance and controversy. Sacred Wonders s1e1, BBC 2019
Angkor Wat, Cambodia: A man who believes these temples are home to his ancestral spirits risks his life to save them from the jungle … This vast complex of over seventy temples was once part of an ancient megacity. ibid.
At Al Aqsa in Jerusalem a young Muslim paramedic battles his own hunger and exhaustion to help thousands of other fasting worshippers during Ramadan. (Wonder & Worship & Temple & Place & Jerusalem) ibid.
At the Shaolin Temple in China a Buddhist monk faces a test that will change the course of his life for ever. ibid.
400 monks live and study here; 100 of those are warrior monks. ibid.
They also made extraordinary monuments like this: Ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil … The temple was once full of beautiful objects and statues. Samira Ahmed, Art of Persia I, BBC 2020
From skeletons hidden deep underground to a gruesome initiation in the dark tunnels beneath a real-life temple of doom to the site of the world’s most horrifying human sacrifice, I’m answering the dark world of hidden Peru where mysterious tribes performed bizarre and bloody rituals. Hidden Worlds of Don Wildman I: Temples of Doom, Discovery 2020
But the Inca people not only survived here, they managed to build an epic empire across a huge part of South America. ibid.
A real-life temple of doom … first discovered over one hundred years ago. ibid.
Skeletons Found in Peru May Shed Light on Pre-Inca People. ibid. The New York Times
The [London] Mithraeum was built around 1,700 years ago. It fell into ruin and was buried when the Romans left our land in the 5th century. It was uncovered in 1954 when an office block was built near Cannon Street, though it’s been moved to a new site in recent years. Dan Jones, Walking Britain’s Roman Roads II: Ermine Street, Channel 5 2020
An ancient temple is discovered in the Middle East. It’s thousands of years older than the Egyptian pyramids. Lost Civilisation, National Geographic Channel 2012
In a comparatively short space of time we go from the stone age to walking on the moon. What was it that made us change so dramatically? ibid.
Turkey: Here is where the find has been made – at a place called Gobekli Tepe (pot-bellied hill). ibid.
Gobekli Tepe is much more sophisticated than Stonehenge and yet is six thousand years older; it’s seven thousand years older than the Egyptian Pyramids. ibid.
How could we have built something so monumental? ibid.
The temple builders were not farmers; they were still hunter-gatherers. ibid.
The engineering skills involved must have been developed a long time before the temple is built. ibid.
To put ourselves about Nature is a huge change from how we see ourselves in earlier cave paintings. ibid.
And what motivates that cultural revolution is the new religion in which we are superior to the beasts. ibid.
Gobekli Tepe suggests that it was the urge to worship that sparked civilisation. ibid.
And, behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name. I Kings 5:5
And the house which king Solomon built for the Lord, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits. I Kings 6:2
But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.
He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars. I Kings 7:1&2
He set up a pillar on the right and called its name Jachin and he set up a pillar on the left and called it Boaz. I Kings 7:21
This was the purpose of the forced labour which Solomon imposed. It was to build the House of Yahweh his own palace and the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. I Kings 9:15
And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord had said. II Kings 24:13
And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.
Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house for the Lord God of Israel. I Chronicles 22:5&6
Of which, twenty and four thousand were to set forward the work of the house of the Lord; and six thousand were officers and judges. I Chronicles 23:4
Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat,
And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things. I Chronicles 28:11&12
Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.
And the porch that was in the front of the house, the length of it was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the height was an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with pure gold. II Chronicles 3:3&4
Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon. II Chronicles 36:6&7
And thus they returned us answer, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house that was builded these many years ago, which a great king of Israel builded and set up.
But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven unto wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon.
But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon the same king Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God.
And the vessels also of gold and silver of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem, and brought them into the temple of Babylon, those did Cyrus the king take out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered unto one, whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor;
And said unto him, Take these vessels, go, carry them into the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be builded in his place. Ezra 5:11-15
And also let the golden and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought unto Babylon, be restored, and brought again unto the temple which is at Jerusalem, every one to his place, and place them in the house of God. Ezra 6:5
And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. Ezra 6:15
And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord:
Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. Zechariah 6:12&13
Wherefore against him Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon came up, and bound him with a chain of brass, and carried him into Babylon.
Nabuchodonosor also took of the holy vessels of the Lord, and carried them away, and set them in his own temple at Babylon. I Esdras 1
And they finished these things by the commandment of the Lord God of Israel, and with the consent of Cyrus, Darius, and Artexerxes, kings of Persia.
And thus was the holy house finished in the three and twentieth day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of Darius king of the Persians
And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and others that were of the captivity, that were added unto them, did according to the things written in the book of Moses.