Kozarnika (Bulgarian: Козарника, "the goat shed") is a cave in northwestern Bulgaria that was used as a hunters’ shelter as early as the Lower Paleolithic (1.4-1.6 million BP). [1] It marks an older route of early humans from Africa to Europe via the Balkans, prior to the currently suggested route across Gibraltar, and probably keeps the earliest evidence of human symbolic behaviour ever found. Here have been found the earliest European Gravette flint assemblages.

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The earliest traces of human life on the Bulgarian lands date back to Paleolithic and Mesolithic times. The brilliant drawings in some Bulgarian caves and the flint labor tools are the only remnants of the primitive man, the homo sapiens forebearer.

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The worship and the use of natural caves (speleoatriyata)

as a special place to perform religious practices is closely connected with

the development of religion in general and originates from the Paleolithic.

The Magura Cave

Thanks to its prehistoric paintings, Magura is, the most important and extended European post-Palaeolithic painted cave.

Bones from different prehistoric species like cave bear or cave hyena have been discovered in the Magura Cave.

Cave paintings dating from the late Neolithic, Epipaleolithic and early Bronze Age decorate some of the cave's walls. The drawings may represent religious ceremonies, deities and hunting scenes, and are unique for the Balkan peninsula. One grouping from the late Neolithic has been interpreted as a solar calendar, the earliest such representation yet discovered in Europe. The medium used to create the art was bat guano. More than 750 images have been identified.

The cave was used by the local Thracian tribe as a sanctuary.

Thracian sanctuary  in Mishkova Niva near  Malko Tarnovo. There is a Thracian tomb built over an old dolmen in the area.

The religious structure developed from a megalithic monument – dolmen with a krepis (supporting wall) and earth mound, into a monumental sanctuary-mausoleum. Later on, during the Roman period (2nd-3rd c. AD) it was reconstructed and huge marble blocks were added to the primary structure. It is assumed that the place was used for worship of mythical ancestor-hero and as sanctuary of God Apollo-Aulariok. Proofs of that are the discovered marble sacrificial altars, some of which dedicated to God Apollo, preserved at present in the museum complex in MalkoTarnovo.

The Hypogeum of Paola, Malta, literally meaning "underground" in Greek, is a subterranean structure dating to the Saflieni phase (3000-2500 BC) in Maltese prehistory. Thought to have been originally a sanctuary, it became a necropolis in prehistoric times and the remains of more than 7,000 individuals have been found. It is the only known prehistoric underground temple in the world.

South Temple of Amenhotep III at Elephantine.

The most simple temples were sometimes the most beautiful. This was the case as regards the sanctuaries erected by Amenhotep III. in the island of Elephantine, which were figured by the members of the French expedition at the end of the last century, and destroyed by the Turkish governor of Asûan in 1822. The best preserved, namely, the south temple consisted of but a single chamber of sandstone, 14 feet high, 31 feet wide, and 39 feet long. The walls, which were straight, and crowned with the usual cornice, rested on a platform of masonry some 8 feet above the ground. This platform was surrounded by a parapet wall, breast high. All around the temple ran a colonnade, the sides each consisting of seven square pillars, without capital or base, and the two façades, front and back, being supported by two columns with the lotus-bud capital.

The Second Temple was an important Jewish Holy Temple (Hebrew: בֵּית־הַמִּקְדָּשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי‎, Bet HaMikdash HaSheni;Arabic: بيت القدس‎: Beit al-Quds) which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period, between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jews of the Kingdom of Judah went to exile, known as Babylonian Captivity. Jewish eschatology includes a belief that the Second Temple will in turn be replaced by a future Third Temple.

The Hebrew Bible says that the First Temple was built in 957 BCE by King Solomon . According to the Book of Deuteronomy, as the sole place of Jewish sacrifice (Deuteronomy 12:2-27), the Temple replaced the Tabernacle constructed in the Sinai Desert under the auspices of Moses, as well as local sanctuaries, and altars in the hills. This temple was sacked a few decades later by 

Sheshonk I, Pharaoh of Egypt.

Temples in the Archaic period were the first stone temples built in Greece, and demonstrate a developing knowledge of stone building.

The Athenian Treasury (Greek: Θησαυρός των Αθηναίων) at Delphi was constructed by the Athenians to house dedications made by their city and citizens to the sanctuary of Apollo. The entire treasury, including its sculptural decoration, is built of Parian marble; its date of construction is disputed, scholarly opinion ranging from 510 to 480 BCE.Pausanias mentions the building in his account of the sanctuary, claiming that it was dedicated from the spoils of theBattle of Marathon, fought in 490 BCE.

The design of Greek stone temples was influenced by Mycenaean megarons (a porch with columns in antis and a central room) and their earlier wooden temples. Many decorative elements, such as the triglyphs, replicated the visual design of wooden temples in stone.

From the final Neolithic/Early Bronze to the end of the Bronze Age, Aegean and Mycenaean architecture is characterized by both continuity and innovation, as well as the adoption and adaptation of neighboring practices. The most obvious feature of mainland architecture is that it is hall centered, dominated by a central rectangular hall or megaron,

There by combining both axiality and simplicity. It forms the core element of the Mycenaean palaces, with additional rooms and courtyards organized around it.

Treasury of Atreus 

1300 BCE - 1250 BCE 

dome 43' tall 47' diameter 

Mycenae, Greece 

Mycenaean or Helladic Period/Civilization

The temple also yields evidence that in the end of the Bronze Age, Thracia and Mycenae were the co-authors of the Mycenaean civilization - one of the most magnificent cultures of its time. 

Starosel (Bulgarian: Старосел) is a village in central Bulgaria, Hisarya Municipality, Plovdiv Province. It lies at the foot of theSredna Gora mountain range along the shores of Pyasachnik River.

Starosel is known for the abundance of ancient Neolithic and Thracian sites, with some finds dating as far back as the 5th-6th millennium BC. Evidence from 20th-century excavations reveals that the village burgeoned into an important and wealthy Thracian city in the 5th century BC.

Among its main features are the underground temple, the largest of its kind in the Balkan Peninsula, built under the Chetinyova Mogila (tumulus) and a mausoleum. The temple, as well as the nearby Thracian king's residence under Mount Kozi Gramadi, likely date to the reign of Amatokos II (359-351 BC).

Another important site, the Horizont tumulus, contains the only known Thracian temple to feature a colonnade (a Doric one). It is one of ten tumuli located within the location range.

The Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak (Bulgarian: Казанлъшка гробница, Kazanlŭshka grobnitsa) is a vaulted-brickwork "beehive" (tholos) tomb near the town of Kazanlak in central Bulgaria.

The tomb is part of a large Thracian necropolis. It comprises a narrow corridor and a round burial chamber, both decorated with murals representing a Thracian couple at a ritual funeral feast. The monument dates back to the 4th century BCE and has been on the UNESCO protected World Heritage Site list since 1979. The murals are memorable for the splendid horses and for a gesture of farewell, in which the seated couple grasp each other's wrists in a moment of tenderness and equality (according to Lyudmila Zhivkova—a view that is not shared by all specialists). The paintings are Bulgaria's best-preserved artistic masterpieces from the Hellenistic period.

Epidauros  Tholos

Circular building; southwest of the Temple of Asklepios, in the central Sanctuary of Asklepios.

ca. 360 BC - ca. 320 BC

Stylobate diameter: ca. 21.3 m; labyrinth diameter: 13.36 m.

Circular building with outer colonnade of 26 Doric columns and inner colonnade of 14 Corinthian columns. Leading to the east entrance, which had windows at either side, was a ramp over the three-stepped platform. Beneath the floor of the Tholos was a labyrinth reached by a hole in the center of the floor.

Temple of Athena Aphaia (490 BC), Aegina, Greece

The Temple of Hera II in Paestum, Italy dates to the Archaic period in ancient Greece, 550 BCE.

During the Archaic period, Greeks began developing the ideal temple design. It included a central naos surrounded on two ends by an opisthodomos and a pronaos, but accessed only through the pronaos. These rooms were surrounded by a peripteral colonnade on a raised platform with two or three steps.

Roman temples, while related to the Greek temple form in general design and use of the orders, represent a separate category of temple form. For example: Romans temples were built on an elevated plateau with a front staircase while the Greek temples were on a on a a base of three steps (a stylobate). The Romans also added two new orders to Roman temple architecture: the Tuscan and Composite orders.

The Temple of Augustus (Croatian: Augustov hram) is a well-preserved Roman temple in the city of Pula, Croatia(known in Roman times as Pola).This temple is from around 2nd century BC to before the death of Augustus in 14AD, for which the temple is dedicated. Besides that dedication, it also is a commemoration for Goddess Roma, a deity from the Greek era. The structure was converted into a church during Byzantine times, so it was preserved for centuries. The building was built on a pedestal porch and the columns are 57 feet high and the building 27 feet wide.

The Temple of Divus Augustus was a major temple originally built to commemorate the deified first Roman emperor,Augustus

The Temple of Augustus and Livia, built at the end of the 1st century BC, survives today basically intact in the city of Vienne, France.

Baalbek, also called Heliopolis, is a spectacular archaeological site in northeastern Lebanon. From the 1st century BC and over a period of two centuries, the Romans built three temples here: Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus. Created to be the largest temple in the Roman empire, the temple of Jupiter was lined by 54 massive granite columns each each of which were 21 meters (70 feet) tall. Only 6 of these titanic columns remain standing but even they are incredibly impressive. The best preserved temple at the site is the Temple of Bacchus built in 150 AD. The ancient Roman temple was dedicated to Bacchus, also known as Dionysus, the Roman god of wine. Today, it is one of the top tourist attractions of a Roman tour in Libanon.

The Basilica Julia, was a large, ornate, public building used for meetings and other official business during the early Roman Empire. The building was initially dedicated in 46 BC by Julius Caesar, with building costs paid from the spoils of the Gallic War. The Basilica was completed by Augustus, who named the building after his adoptive father. The building burned shortly after its completion, but was repaired and rededicated in AD 12. The Basilica was again reconstructed by the Emperor Diocletian after the fire of AD 283.

The basilica was a fundamental element of a Roman forum. It was used as a public building, much like the Greek stoa. It served as a meeting place for administration, as a law court, and as a marketplace. It also provided cover and shade for hot or stormy afternoons. After Christianity became the main religion of the Roman Empire, the basilica came to be a church where the masses worshipped, and remains so today.

Old Saint Peter Basilica, Rome, (330 CE), Early Christian Architecture

Laodicea was founded in 3rd C BC as a Hellenistic town after the death of Alexander the great. The city is at the crossroads of important routes of the antiquity depending on the  convenient topography for military, administrative and economic facilities so it became one of the main hubs in Asia Minor in Roman times.

The church was built during the reign of Constantine (306–337) and destroyed by an earthquake in the early seventh century.

The church was established in the Apostolic Age, the earliest period of Christianity, and is probably best known for being one of the Seven churches of Asia addressed by name in the Book of Revelation.

Santa Costanza is an imperial mausoleum in Rome that was later dedicated as a church (in Italian it is known both as Mausoleo di Santa Costanza and Chiesa di Santa Costanza). This fascinating and beautiful building dates from the 4th century AD and features some of the earliest surviving Christian art.

The ruins of St. George's Church in Rihab, Jordan. Archaeologists says they discovered a cave under the third century church that they believe was used by 70 disciples of Jesus in the first century after his death. If the claim can be substantiated, it would make the cave the oldest site of Christian worship in the world.

Ezra'a has one of Syria's oldest functioning churches, the Greek Orthodox church of Saint George (Mar Girgis) which was build in 515 AD. In its historical and religious associations this is perhaps one of the most remarkable buildings in Syria. The Greek Orthodox Church of Saint George is one of the oldest churches still in use in Syria, its architecture has been largely unaffected by its changing fortunes and has remained in a remarkable unchanged state. The church it is still standing and is a living historical monument, a witness to the famous ecclesiastical architectural style of that period.

The Church of St George 

(Bulgarian: Ротонда „Свети Георги“ Rotonda "Sveti Georgi") is an Early Christian red brick rotunda that is considered the oldest building in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.It is situated behind the Sheraton Hotel, amid remains of the ancient town of Serdica.

Built by the Romans in the 4th century, it is a cylindrical domed structure built on a square base. It is believed that it was built on the site of a pagan temple, though the original purpose of the building was for public use. The building is famous for the 12th-14th-century frescoes inside the central dome. Three layers of frescoes have been discovered, the earliest dating back to the 10th century. Magnificent frescoes of 22 prophets over 2 metres tall crown the dome. Painted over during the Ottoman period, when the building was used as a mosque, these frescoes were only uncovered and restored in the 20th century.[1]

The Round Church (Bulgarian: Кръгла църква, Kragla tsarkva), also known as the Golden Church (Златна църква, Zlatna tsarkva) or the Church of St John (църква "Свети Йоан", tsarkva "Sveti Yoan"), is a large partially preserved early Eastern Orthodox church in Preslav.

Located on the outskirts of Sofia, Boyana Church consists of three buildings. The eastern church was built in the 10th century, then enlarged at the beginning of the 13th century by Sebastocrator Kaloyan, who ordered a second two-storey building to be erected next to it. The frescoes in this second church, painted in 1259, make it one of the most important collections of medieval paintings. The ensemble is completed by a third church, built at the beginning of the 19th century. This site is one of the most complete and perfectly preserved monuments of east European medieval art.

The Church of Saint George, or Sveti Georgi in Bulgarian, is located at the southwester part of the historical village of Arbanasi, 5 minutes from Veliko Tarnovo. It is a massive stone building  sized 21 x 10 metres, with a two-slope roof. It has a single nave and apse, with a narthex to the west and a gallery to the north. 

Archaeological and architectural surveys have revealed that within the current naos and earlier temple existed. It consisted of an altar, naos and narthex under a single massive vault and was built in the second part of the 16th century. 

The Saints Konstantin and Elena Church is one of the oldest churches in the city of Plovdiv. There was a sanctuary at the present site as early as the 4th century