A sun temple (or solar temple) is a building used for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, dedicated to the sun or a solar deity. Such temples were built by a number different cultures and are distributed around the world including in India,
China
The Temple of the Sun in
Beijing,
China, was built in 1530 during the
Ming dynasty by the
Jiajing Emperor,
together with new temples dedicated to the Earth and the Moon, and an expansion of the Temple of Heaven.
The Temple of the Sun was used by the imperial court for elaborate acts of worship involving fasting, prayers, dancing and animal sacrifices, as part of a year-long cycle of ceremonies involving all the temples.
An important element was the colour red, which was associated with the Sun, including red utensils for food and wine offerings, and red clothes for the emperor to wear during the ceremonies.
The temple is now part of a public park.
Egypt
In
ancient Egypt, there were a number of sun temples. Among these old monuments is the Great Temple of Ramses at Abu Simbel,
and complexes built by the
Fifth Dynasty, of which only two examples survive, that of
Userkaf and of
Niuserre.
The Fifth Dynasty temples usually had three components, a main temple building at a higher elevation, accessed by a causeway, from a much smaller entrance building.
In 2006, archaeologists found ruins underneath a market in Cairo, which could possibly be the largest temple built by
Ramesses II.
India
The sun temples of the Indian subcontinent are dedicated to the
Hinduism deity
Surya,
with the most prominent among them being the Konark Sun Temple (also known as the
Black Pagoda), a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
at
Konark in
Odisha and the Sun Temple at
Modhera,
Gujarat, built in 1026–1027. Both are now ruins, having been destroyed by invading Muslim armies. Konark was constructed around 1250, by
Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty.
Surya was an important deity in early Hinduism, but sun worship largely declined as a principal deity around the 12th century. In
mythology, the sun god
Korouhanba is the synonym of the
Hindu deity
Surya. Other Surya or sun temples in the Indian subcontinent include:
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Andhra Pradesh
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Surya Narayana Temple at Arasavalli in Andhra Pradesh built in 7th century by king Devendra Varma, ruler of Kalinga.
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Assam
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Surya Pahar Temple at Sri Surya Pahar in Assam built in 9th century
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]
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Bihar
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Deo Surya Mandir in Deo, Bihar
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Kandaha Surya Mandir
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Sitamarhi Surya Mandir
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Navagraha Surya Mandir, Mangaldham
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Bhaskar Temple at Gaya in Bihar
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Bhaskar Temple at Parsa in Bihar
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Bhaskar Temple at Patna in Bihar
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Bhaskar Temple at Pitath
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Bhaskar Temple at Bhakura
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Bhaskar Chhth ghat, Selhauri in Belhauri
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Manjesh Bhaskar Temple at
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Budha Bhaskar temple at Garhara
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Bhushan Bhaskar temple at Chain Singh Patti
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Bhagwan Bhaskar Dham at Kurmuri in Arrah
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Surya Temple at Sanda
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Sumera Surya Mandir in Jehanabad District
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Sun Temple at Nalanda
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Sun Temple at Baragaon
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Sun Temple at Nur Sarai
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Sun Temple at Muzaffarpur
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Sun Temple at Beraunti
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Sun Temple at Chorsua
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Sun Temple at Beldhana
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Sun Temple at Koel Bigha
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Sun Temple at Sirnawan
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Sun Temple at Bihar Sharif
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Sun Temple at Shankardih
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Sun Temple at Itasang
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Sun Temple at Kundi, Bihar
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Sun Temple at Alawan
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Sun Temple at Lal Bigha, Nawada
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Sun Temple at Soradih
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Sun Temple at Bilari
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Gujarat
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Modhera Sun Temple at Modhera in Gujarat, built in 1027 by King Bhimdev of the Chaulukya dynasty
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Navlakha Temple, Ghumli, Gujarat, built in the 11th century.
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Sun Temple, Thangadh
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Haryana
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Within 48 Kos Parikrama of Kurukshetra
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Within Borshyam Surya tirtha
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Within Aaugandh Suryakunda
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Within Habri Suryakunda
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Within Sajuma Suryakunda
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Surajkund, Faridabad
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Jammu and Kashmir
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Martand Sun Temple, near Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir built in 10th century
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Karnataka
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Soorya Narayana Temple at Maroli, Mangalore, Karnataka
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Kerala
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Madhya Pradesh
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Maharashtra
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Kanakaditya Temple at Kasheli in Ratnagiri
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Suryanarayana temple, Narayana Chincholi, Dist. in Solapur
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Manipur
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Odisha
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Biranchinarayan Temple, Palia, a 13th-century temple in Palia, Odisha.
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Tamil Nadu
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Uttarakhand
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Uttar Pradesh
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West Bengal
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Pakistan
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Multan Sun Temple, also known as Aditya Sun Temple, in Multan in Punjab, Pakistan was destroyed by Muslim rulers in 10th century.
Inca empire
The following are Pre-Columbian temples of
Inti (the Inca god Sun):
Others
There are also sun temple sites in a number of other countries:
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The Temple of the Sun in the Temple of the Cross Complex, at the Mayan site of Palenque, in southern Mexico, built sometime between 200 and 900 AD.
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The Temple of the Night Sun at the Mayan site of El Zotz, Guatemala, possibly abandoned in the fifth century.
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There are several in Japan, dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu including:
- * Ise Grand Shrine in Ise, Mie prefecture
- * Amanawa Shinmei Shrine, founded in 710, in Kamakura
- * Amanoiwato-jinja in Takachiho, Miyazaki prefecture
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In the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, United States, there is a structure which may have been used as a sun temple by the Pueblo culture,
Other usages
The name
Temple of the Sun or
Sun Temple was given to a folly which stood in
Kew Gardens from 1761 until 1916. It was designed and built by William Chambers, who also planted a cedar tree next to the structure earlier, in 1725. In 1916, a storm brought down the cedar tree, which destroyed the folly in the process.
See also
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Fire temple
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Temple of the Moon (disambiguation)
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Temple of the Stars
