Kolinet Temple

A few kilometers outside of Kolinet one can find the famous Kolinet Temple complex. Almost everything about it is still a mystery; including its original name and function, and even more so, its very presence.

In the middle of the delta created by the Gloamin river as it empties into the Sarodin Sea sits a rock of dark green stone, over a hundred meters high and with a perimeter of about five kilometers. If the rock was there before the delta or the other way around is a topic hotly debated among scholars.

Carved into the rock on either side of the only entrance to the complex are two huge standing figures with a frieze all around them. Both the statues and the text on the frieze have become so eroded that it is no longer possible to divine anything of them, not even the gender of the statues.

The entrance is fifteen meters high and inside the complex the ceiling is never less than five meters high. On entering the complex one arrives in an antechamber the size of an average theater. Huge stone doors then lead to the so-called Hall of the Ancients, a room so large it brings any who enter to their knees. The entire city of Kolinet could comfortably fit inside it. There are no supporting pillars, it is one vast room and one without even the hint of an echo. It was completely empty when found and there has been much speculation as to its purpose.

Corridors lead from the Hall of the Ancients into the rest of the rock and the numerous rooms carved into it, some small, others larger than the largest temples ever built. Most of the corridors have been cordoned off as it is easy to get lost inside them, but a few of the rooms are accessible to the public, showing some of the rare items found inside the complex. Speculation as the exact purpose of the structure rages on to this day, though it being, at least in part, meant as a temple is almost universally accepted.

A set of wooden stairs have been built to allow relatively easy access to the top of the rock; the view is stunning. There are also a number of natural paths up the rock but caution should be taken as there is a lot of loose scree that could easily precipitate a fall. Remarkably the top of the rock contains enough soil for a small forest to have grown there.