The oldest temples in the world: a list by age, and the oldest still in use

Architecture · 4 September 2026

The oldest temple in the world is Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey, whose stone enclosures were raised around 9500 BC, about 11,600 years ago, by hunter-gatherers before farming existed. After it come the megalithic temples of Malta from about 3600 BC, the passage tombs of Ireland and Orkney aligned on the winter sun, Stonehenge, the pyramid complexes of Egypt, and the temples of Karnak and Luxor, still standing after 3,400 years. Below is the list in order of age with what is known about each, and then a second list that answers the other question people ask: the oldest temples still in use, where worship has continued for two or three thousand years. All of them are in the Ancient temples of the world collection.

How the dates are known

A "temple" here means a building or enclosure made for ritual rather than for living, and "oldest" means the oldest standing remains, not the oldest legend. Dates come from radiocarbon measurements of charcoal, bone and plant remains in the fill and foundations, from tree-ring and ice-core calibration of those measurements, from the sequence of construction layers, and, for Egypt and later cultures, from king lists and inscriptions. Where a date is approximate the list says so.

The oldest temples, by age

1. Göbekli Tepe, Turkey, about 9500 BC. Circular enclosures of T-shaped limestone pillars up to 18 feet tall, carved with foxes, boars, snakes and vultures, built by hunter-gatherers before pottery or agriculture. Radiocarbon dates from the fill place the oldest enclosures around 9500–8500 BC. Sister sites at Karahan Tepe and across the Taş Tepeler region are the same age. Details in the Göbekli Tepe article.
2. Ġgantija, Gozo, Malta, about 3600 BC. Two temples of coralline limestone with blocks of up to 50 tons, the oldest of the Maltese megalithic temples and older than Stonehenge and the pyramids. Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra on Malta follow around 3200 BC, the latter aligned so the equinox sunrise enters its doorway.
3. Newgrange, Ireland, about 3200 BC. A passage tomb 280 feet across whose chamber is lit by the rising sun for 17 minutes on the winter solstice; a temple of the dead and of the year rather than of a god. Maeshowe in Orkney, about 2800 BC, does the same with the setting sun.
4. Caral, Peru, about 2600 BC. Six platform mounds and sunken circular plazas in the Supe valley, the oldest city and temple complex in the Americas, contemporary with the pyramids of Egypt and built by people who had cotton but no pottery.
5. Pyramid of Djoser, Saqqara, Egypt, about 2650 BC. The first pyramid and the first stone building of its size in the world, with its surrounding funerary temple and courts; the architect, Imhotep, is the first known by name.
6. Stonehenge, England, about 3000–2000 BC. The ditch and first stones date to about 3000 BC and the great sarsen circle to about 2500 BC, aligned on the solstices and surrounded by the cremations of its builders. Details in the Stonehenge article.
7. The pyramids of Giza, Egypt, about 2560 BC. Tombs rather than temples in the strict sense, but each has its mortuary temple and valley temple, and the Sphinx temple beside them is one of the oldest temple buildings in Egypt.
8. Knossos, Crete, about 1700 BC. A Minoan palace with shrines, pillar crypts and a throne room used for ritual; not a temple in the later sense, but the oldest ceremonial building in Europe still visible above ground.
9. Temple of Hatshepsut, Egypt, about 1470 BC, and Luxor, about 1400 BC. The great standing temples of the New Kingdom; Karnak, begun about 2000 BC and built for two thousand years, is the largest religious complex of antiquity.
10. Abu Simbel, Egypt, about 1264 BC. Two temples of Ramesses II cut into a cliff, moved 200 feet uphill in 1968 to escape Lake Nasser.
11. Chavín de Huántar, Peru, about 900 BC. A temple with underground galleries and a carved monolith at its heart, the centre of the first widespread religion of the Andes.
12. Greek temples, from about 600 BC. The Temple of Hera at Olympia (about 590 BC) is the oldest standing; the Parthenon (432 BC), the temples of Paestum and Agrigento and the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion follow.
13. The Great Stupa at Sanchi, India, about 250 BC. The oldest stone structure in India, a hemisphere over relics of the Buddha, and the oldest Buddhist monument in continuous existence.

The oldest temples still in use

A different question: not the oldest ruin, but the oldest building where worship has never stopped, or has resumed and continued for centuries. The candidates, in order of the age of the present building:

1. Karnak and Luxor, Egypt. Pagan worship ended in the 4th century AD, but a mosque, Abu Haggag, has stood inside Luxor Temple since the 13th century on the site of a church, so a building begun in 1400 BC still hosts prayer.
2. Sanchi, India, about 250 BC. Abandoned in the 13th century and revived as a Buddhist pilgrimage site after 1919; the oldest religious monument in the world with active worship, with a gap.
3. Dambulla, Sri Lanka, about 100 BC. Five cave temples with 153 Buddha statues, in continuous Buddhist use for 2,100 years: the strongest claim to "oldest temple in continuous use" for a single site.
4. The Pantheon, Rome, AD 126. Built as a temple to all gods, consecrated as a church in 609 and in use as one ever since; the oldest building in the world with continuous religious use under one roof, and the largest unreinforced concrete dome. In the Buildings by style collection.
5. Etchmiadzin, Armenia, founded 303, present building 483. Regarded as the oldest cathedral in the world, the seat of the Armenian Church since Armenia became the first Christian state.
6. Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya, India, 5th–6th century. Beside the descendant of the tree under which the Buddha reached enlightenment; restored in the 19th century and in daily use.
7. Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, 537. Cathedral for 900 years, mosque for 500, museum for 86, mosque again since 2020: the oldest building of its size in continuous religious or civic use.
8. Hōryū-ji, Japan, 607, rebuilt about 711. The oldest wooden buildings in the world, a pagoda and a hall in continuous Buddhist use for 1,300 years.
9. Ise Grand Shrine, Japan, since about 690. The buildings are new, because they have been rebuilt from scratch every 20 years for 1,300 years, but the shrine and its rite are among the oldest continuous religious institutions on Earth.
10. Virupaksha Temple, Hampi, India, 7th century. A Hindu temple in unbroken use since the 600s, the oldest in the world's largest living temple tradition; the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur (1010) and Madurai's Meenakshi follow.

Which is "the oldest"? It depends on the question

• Oldest monumental sanctuary: Göbekli Tepe, about 9500 BC.
• Oldest free-standing stone temple: Ġgantija, Malta, about 3600 BC.
• Oldest temple in the Americas: Caral, Peru, about 2600 BC.
• Oldest in continuous use at one site: Dambulla, Sri Lanka, from about 100 BC, or Karnak and Luxor if a change of religion counts.
• Oldest building with continuous worship under one roof: the Pantheon, Rome, AD 126, a church since 609.
• Oldest Hindu temple in use: Virupaksha at Hampi, 7th century; the oldest Hindu temple building of all is probably the Mundeshwari temple in Bihar or the Gupta temples of the 5th century.
• Oldest wooden temple: Hōryū-ji, Japan, about 711.
• Oldest cathedral: Etchmiadzin, Armenia, 483 on a 303 foundation.

For how the oldest of all were built, see how the pyramids were built and Stonehenge.

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