Inside the Site

‘Places and landscapes are created and experienced through mobility as much as stasis, through the manner in which they are explored and sensed, approached and left’ – Christopher Tilley: ‘The Materiality of Stone:Explorations in Landscape Phenomenology.

On entering the surprisingly spacious oval interiors, visitors see their ‘shadow’ reflected upon the stone architecture. Under a lintel, through a porthole, into a chamber – these journeys take visitors into an intimate encounter with the complex spatial organisation of opening, enclosures and passageways.

Entering the most elaborate of all the temples – the lower temples – visitors see the central passageway ahead leading to an altar flanked by an intricate arrangement of monumental uprights with lintels and pitted decoration – the marks of artistry from the past. To the right of the main chamber are two small rectangular openings and a larger one up three steps to a hidden recess. Moving towards the porthole cut in the solid limestone, visitors can enter this tiny recess (normally closed to the public) to find a tiny niche and the small aperture connected to the main chamber. Experience of such private, enclosed spaces across the temple environment provides a glimpse into how they might have been used for specialist activity in the provision of advice and the offering of talismans.

The temples have been called ‘Theatres of Knowledge’ for the way that the internal structure directs and controls movement to form an understanding of prehistoric people. In participating in this movement, visitors gain a sense of being in the presence of another space – a space that reflects the lived experience of past visitors in the activity of contemporary ones.


'Places and landscapes are created and experienced through mobility as much as stasis, through the manner in which they are explored and sensed, approached and left' - Christopher Tilley: The Materiality of Stone: Explorations in Landscape Phenomenology.

On entering the surprisingly spacious oval interiors, visitors see their ‘shadow’ reflected upon the stone architecture. Under a lintel, through a porthole, into a chamber – these journeys take visitors into an intimate encounter with the complex spatial organisation of opening, enclosures and passageways.

Entering the most elaborate of all the temples - the lower temples – visitors see the central passageway ahead leading to an altar flanked by an intricate arrangement of monumental uprights with lintels and pitted decoration – the marks of artistry from the past. To the right of the main chamber are two small rectangular openings and a larger one up three steps to a hidden recess. Moving towards the porthole cut in the solid limestone, visitors can enter this tiny recess (normally closed to the public) to find a tiny niche and the small aperture connected to the main chamber. Experience of such private, enclosed spaces across the temple environment provides a glimpse into how they might have been used for specialist activity in the provision of advice and the offering of talismans.

The temples have been called ‘Theatres of Knowledge’ for the way that the internal structure directs and controls movement to form an understanding of prehistoric people. In participating in this movement, visitors gain a sense of being in the presence of another space – a space that reflects the lived experience of past visitors in the activity of contemporary ones.