Iraq

In ancient Iraq, some temples began with a huge pit filled with sand.

At an oval temple near today’s Baghdad, builders dug a pit around eight metres deep. They filled it with sand before laying the foundations of the temple above it.

The sand does not seem to have been needed mainly to carry the temple. It was linked to the idea of ki sikil, the pure place on which a temple should stand.

At a temple in northern Iraq, excavations have shown the same thing: sand had deliberately been laid beneath the sanctuary before it was built.