Iraq
Sand Origin
Outside Karbala City
Random Sand Fact
Before a temple was built in ancient Iraq, the ground could first be filled with metre after metre of sand.
At the Oval Temple of Khafaje, builders dug a pit around eight metres deep. They filled it with sand before laying the foundations of the temple above it.
The enormous effort does not appear to have been primarily technical. The sand was linked to the idea of ki sikil — the pure place on which a temple should stand.
New analysis from the Temple of Ishtar at Assur shows the same underlying idea: sand had deliberately been laid beneath the sanctuary before it was built.
