Temple of Shisara

Purpose / Function

The Temple of Shisara stands on a promotory in a curve of the Great River and overlooks the city of Shiramh. The largest and most important center of worship in the religion of the river dwellers, this temple contains the main shrine to the grain and fertility goddess Shisara but also houses side chapels dedicated to Shisara's consort, the river god Eftar, and her sister, the goddess of time and the skies, Naponfer. There are also smaller shrines to several lesser gods subject to Shisara's influence, including the goddess of spices and the gods of beer and of the mud brick. Some two hundred people live in the complex surrounding the temple at the top of the sacred mount, from priestesses and cantors to the temple guard to artisans and workers. The seven handmaidens of Shisara, led by the goddess' high priestess, rule over the temple and its surrounding complex. The Walker, the avatar of the goddess, also lives here, but her role is to act as a conduit for the goddess at the times when Shisara decides to inhabit her, so the Walker herself has no formal power over the temple or its community, although when a Walker has been with the goddess for several generations, the people of the temple may come to value her advice and experience. The temple sits on the remains of earlier temples to Shisara, and a staircase leads down from the main shrine of the goddess to an earlier temple that only the high priestess and the Walker may enter. They know it as the First Temple, although there were actually earlier temples, no longer extant, on the site.

Architecture

The temple itself is a rectangular stone building whose main entrance faces west onto a walled courtyard. The shrine to Shisara is at the far eastern end of the temple with the shrine to Eftar along the south side and the one to Naponfer on the north. Outside the temple proper are the homes and workshops of the temple community, surrounded by a wall that encompasses the entire top of the promontory. Huge, painted reliefs depicting stories of the gods cover the outside of the temple and both sets of defensive walls.

History

The Temple of Shisara is on the site of the first settlement of Shiramh. The promontory offers a view of the river basin for miles on every side and an easily defensible steep slope on the side facing away from the river. The first temple built here was probably no more than a straw hut, later replaced by the stone temple and complex that gradually expanded as the city moved down the hillside and spread into the flat land at its foot. At least twelve Walkers have served the goddess here and have been interred in the necropolis outside the city walls.

Alternative Names

Great Temple at Shiramh

Type

Temple / Religious complex