Thinking about the pictures of the oldest places of worship, we always think of the gigantic stone monuments constructed by the Ancient Egyptians, or maybe of the brick ziggurats constructed by the Mesopotamians. We feel certain that such great master builders should come from great empires having lots of warriors and lots of resources. This is quite logical because it seems only possible that older civilisations were greater than the modern ones. However, history teaches us otherwise.
As you examine the earliest surviving freestanding temple structures, you will find that their geographic distribution presents an unexpected narrative to be told. Unlike the continental civilisations we might expect, the true birthplace of monumental stone architecture is instead the tiny, sunlit islands located right in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Before the first blocks of the Great Pyramid of Giza were even laid, an isolated group of people on an island had been lifting and erecting large blocks of limestone into their own unique temples.
