Ed-Dur temple being rebuilt

ARAMAIC WATCH: UAE rebuilding region's sun temple, brick by brick (Sajila Saseendran, Khaleej Times).

The UAE is rebuilding the only sun temple discovered in the region, brick by brick, literally.

The remains of the temple used for worshipping the solar deity in the first century were discovered in the midst of the desert in Ed-Dur historical site in Umm Al Quwain in the late 1980s. Ed-Dur is one of the six historical sites the UAE has nominated as Unesco World Heritage Sites.

The Aramaic inscription found at the temple mentioned the name of the sun deity Shamash, throwing light on the fact that the deity was worshipped in the region some 2000 years ago.

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Dr. Zaki Aslan, director of ICCROM-ATHAR Regional Conservation Centre in Sharjah, which is supervising and development and conservation of the temple in collaboration with other governmental agencies told Khaleej Times that efforts have been on to protect the temple from further deterioration and restore it to the state in which it was discovered.

The eagles and some other objects from the site have been moved to the museum while the rest of the temple structure is getting reconstructed using traditional methods and materials.

"We are trying to reproduce the temple as it was found in the 80s," said Dr Aslan.

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More on this Aramaic inscription, and on Aramaic at Ed-Dur and in ancient Arabia in general, is here and links.