Temenos (
Greek: ; plural: ,
temene) is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to
kings and
chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, a sanctuary,
holy grove or holy precinct: The
Pythian race-course is called a temenos, the sacred valley of the
Nile is the ("the rich temenos of
Cronides by the Nile"), the
Acropolis of Athens is the ("the holy temenos"; of
Pallas). The word derives from the Greek verb (
temno), "to cut". The earliest attested form of the word is the
Mycenaean Greek ,
te-me-no, written in
Linear B syllabic script.
