The Discovery of the Long-Lost Temple of Musasir

The Musasir temple was an important Araratian temple dedicated to Haldi, the supreme god of the kingdom of Urartu, an Iron Age kingdom centered on Lake Van in the Armenian Highlands, which extended out across what is now Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia. The temple was built in the holy city of Ararat in 825 BC, but after Musasir fell to the Assyrians in the 8th century BC, the ancient temple became lost to the pages of history, until very recently.

In July, 2014, an exciting announcement was made – the long-lost temple of Musasir had been found. Located in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, the findings included life-sized human sculptures and column bases from a temple dedicated to the god Haldi, all dating back to the period in which the temple of Musasir was built.

After the initial discovery, which was made by local villagers who stumbled upon the ruins accidentally, Dlshad Marf Zamua, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, viewed the uncovered archaeological finds. He analyzed the pieces to get a better sense of what they represented, and to try to unlock some of the mysteries to which they may be the key.

The column base that was discovered is considered to be a significant find. Marf Zamua has said “[o]ne of the best results of my fieldwork is the uncovered column bases of the long-lost temple of the city of Musasir, which was dedicated to the god Haldi.”

The Discovery of the Long-Lost Temple of Musasir