Nekresi Fire Temple

The Nekresi fire temple is an archaeological complex in the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti, part of the wider Nekresi site [1]. The excavated building, preserved only fragmentarily at a foundation level, is identified as a Zoroastrian fire temple, sun temple, or a Manichean shrine [1]. The Nekresi temple lies in lowland arable fields to the south of the hill on which the early medieval Nekresi monastery stands [1]. Archaeological artifacts found at the site are limited to fragments of pottery of the 2nd to the 4th centuries; charcoal from a threshold gave a radiocarbon date in the 5th century suggesting that the site was destroyed at that time [1]. The temple is set in a square plan, measuring 50 x 50 metres in total [1]. Its design is complex, centered on an almost square building of 76 m2, around which there were four more buildings arranged in a cruciform pattern and each ending in a semicircular apse facing the central building [1].