Qualla: Temple of Anahita: Where Water Was Worship https://qualla.com/temple-of-anahita-bishapur en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/k/9/temple-of-anahita-bishapur-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Temple of Anahita: Where Water Was Worship https://qualla.com/temple-of-anahita-bishapur Temple of Anahita: Where Water Was Worship: Introduction https://qualla.com/temple-of-anahita-bishapur/ Photo credit Sahand Ace, CC BY-SA 3.0. Water flowed through this temple on purpose. The builders of the Temple of Anahita at Bishapur did not simply place an altar beside a river and call it sacred. They engineered a system to divert the Shapur River, 250 meters away, into the temple itself, channeling it through the open-roofed interior and draining it out through an underground qanat. The goddess Anahita presided over water, fertility, and wisdom in the Zoroastrian tradition, and worshipping her meant bringing the river indoors. Built in the second half of the 3rd century AD on the orders of Shapur I, one of the most powerful Sasanian kings, this temple was not a quiet place of contemplation. It was architecture in conversation with the natural world.

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Image: Sahand Ace | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/k/9/temple-of-anahita-bishapur-wp/tjk9-temple-of-anahita-where-water-was-worship-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Temple of Anahita: Where Water Was Worship: The City Shapur Built https://qualla.com/temple-of-anahita-bishapur/ Photo credit Behnam9395, CC0. Bishapur was Shapur I's creation, a royal city 15 kilometers west of modern Kazerun in Iran's Fars Province. The name itself means "Beautiful City of Shapur." As one of the capitals of the Sasanian Empire, it served as both administrative center and showcase for the king's ambiti...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/k/9/temple-of-anahita-bishapur-wp/tjk9-temple-of-anahita-where-water-was-worship-the-city-shapur-built.mp3 0:06 2 full Temple of Anahita: Where Water Was Worship: Stone Without Mortar https://qualla.com/temple-of-anahita-bishapur/ Photo credit Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0. The temple is a massive rectangular chamber, nearly 14 meters on each side, sunk into a depression about 6 meters below the surrounding ground level. Its walls are double-layered, built entirely of precisely carved limestone blocks fitted together without mortar, a technique borr...

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Image: Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/k/9/temple-of-anahita-bishapur-wp/tjk9-temple-of-anahita-where-water-was-worship-stone-without-mortar.mp3 0:06 3 full Temple of Anahita: Where Water Was Worship: The Goddess of Living Waters https://qualla.com/temple-of-anahita-bishapur/ Photo credit Davood4445, CC BY-SA 4.0. Anahita held a singular place in the Zoroastrian pantheon. She governed all the waters of the world, from rivers to rainfall, and was associated with fertility, healing, and purification. During certain seasons, when the Shapur River's flow was directed into the temple, worshippe...

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Image: Davood4445 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/k/9/temple-of-anahita-bishapur-wp/tjk9-temple-of-anahita-where-water-was-worship-the-goddess-of-living-waters.mp3 0:06 4 full Temple of Anahita: Where Water Was Worship: Unearthed Twice https://qualla.com/temple-of-anahita-bishapur/ Photo credit Majid Taghipour, CC BY-SA 4.0. French archaeologist Roman Ghirshman first excavated Bishapur in 1935, producing detailed sketches of the Anahita Temple's side corridors. Then silence fell over the site for decades. In 1968, Iranian archaeologist Ali Akbar Sarfaraz resumed the work, spending years uncovering, r...

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Image: Majid Taghipour | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/k/9/temple-of-anahita-bishapur-wp/tjk9-temple-of-anahita-where-water-was-worship-unearthed-twice.mp3 0:06 5 full