A
temple is a structure reserved for
religious or spiritual activities,
such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous
rites (as in masonry). It is a general
term for a house of worship. The majority
of the main temples, along the major
religions, are aligned in the cardinal
directions, especially in a east-west
axis which symbolically represents
the sun's path, the "donor of
life". The word is derived from
the both more and less specific Latin
word templum ("sacred place").
Initially, the templum was a section
(from Greek temnein – to cut
or divide) carved out of the heavens,
used by the augurs for divination
– see Roman temple. It is interesting
to note that this spatial division
has its temporal equivalent with tempus
(the time) deriving from the same
temnein origin, as a division of the
duration.
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