The Temple Oval of Khafajah belongs to a series of sanctuaries protected by curved fortifications that appears in the mid-3rd millennium. The sacred area is limited to the interior walls, while the outside walls serve the purpose of protecting a residence (possibly that of the religious dignitary responsible for the ceremonies). The terrace at the end of the courtyard housed the temple. The limited height of the preserved remains of the edifice leaves a lot of margin to reconstruction. It is for example unknown whether its terrace was stepped in a manner similar to that of the Red Massif.
- Map of the Temple Oval of Khafajah, with its twin enclosures and its interior courtyard, half-occupied by a high-terrace (infography C. Schuppert)
- The Oval Temple in its urban environment. In the North-West, it is juxtaposed to the city’s gate and a housing district. The North-Eastern part of the city harbors a concentration of more official buildings, which excavators called “small temples” (infography C. Schuppert)
- Map showing the repartition of the temples oval and Early Dynastic high-terraces in Southern Mesopotamia (infography Ph. Quenet and Terrains Vagues)
- Another temple oval: Tell el-‘Obeid’s. Other temples follow a more or less similar make on other Southern-Mesopotamian sites, such as those of Adab, Tello and Lagaš (infography C. Schuppert)