Ruined Temple Complex

The name of the temple complex next to Fikri al-Soltani's Tower has been lost to time, and the buildings themselves are weathered and the great stones making up their structures are strewn across the landscape or swallowed by the sand. They have been abandoned for almost a thousand years, and many of the temples contain shrines and statues to long-forgotten gods.
The buildings cover an area of almost a square mile, with courtyards and plazas stretching between them, separated by colonnades and ruined walls. The remnants of stonework watercourses show where pools and artificial rivers ran, surrounded by garden beds and palm trees, before the Fountain of Athis dried up. Several almost-buried colossal statues depict long-ago pharaohs during their rule, and sheltered corners and the interiors of buildings still show the remains of friezes and bas-reliefs depicting ceremonies in the temples.
The central temple in the complex is a huge building dedicated to the ancient Raurindi god of the sun, the precursor of Sunpyrion. An enormous plaza in front of it was laid in golden-yellow stone, and a great altar permitted public ceremonies to be witnessed by the assembled populace. Carved columns over seventy feet high support the front of the temple, and seated statues either side of the door depict an unknown pharaoh.
Despite the age of the complex, its sheer size and inaccessibility surrounded by desert has made it impossible for thieves to systematically plunder it. The most obvious and portable valuables were removed by the priesthood during the evacuation after the Fountain dried up and the desert started to return, with those which could not be carried or not important to take hidden away in secret caches. Some of those caches were found and pillaged over the centuries, but more remain.
On the longest night of the year, when the moon is full and the wind is right, travellers swear they can hear faint voices on the wind wailing in old Raurindi; the faded remnants of the gods once worshipped in the Empire, now long-forgotten and their temples abandoned, mourning the loss of their people.

Type

Temple / Religious complex