A heathen hof or Germanic pagan temple is a temple building of Germanic religion. The term hof is taken from Old Norse.
Midvinterblot (1915) by Carl Larsson: King Domalde offers himself for sacrifice before the hof at Gamla Uppsala.
A woodcut depicting the Temple at Uppsala as described by Adam of Bremen, including the golden chain around the temple, the well and the tree, from Olaus Magnus' Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (1555).
The dig out with postholes of the assumed Viking age Hof at Ose in Ørsta, Norway
View of Urnes stave church by Axel Lindahl, 1880s, with the ancient portal in the north wall
A temple is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temple" in English, while those of other religions are not, even though they fulfill very similar functions. The religions for which the terms are used include the great majority of ancient religions that are now extinct, such as the Ancient Egyptian religion and the Ancient Greek religion. Among religions still active: Hinduism, Buddhism(whose temples are called Vihar), Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, the Baha'i Faith, Taoism, Shinto, Confucianism.
The 12th-century Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia is the largest religious structure in the world and is dedicated to the Hindu deity Vishnu.
Borobudur temple, the largest Buddhist temple in the world, located in Central Java, Indonesia.
The Erechtheion in Athens, Greece, is associated with some of the most ancient and holy relics of the Athenians, such as the Palladion, a xoanon of Athena Polias
The Golden temple of Mahalakshmi, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
