Shrine of Fareed
| Shrine of Fareed | |
|---|---|
luQabah luFareed (Packilvanian) | |
 Facade of the Shrine, picture taken in 2005 | |
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| Alternative names | Shrine of Carnelians |
| General information | |
| Type | Shrine, ruin |
| Architectural style | Thalmanite Monumentalism |
| Location | 20 kilometres from Edhen, Iganar, Packilvania |
| Construction started | c. 1200 BCE |
| Completed | c. 1000 BCE |
The Shrine of Fareed (Packilvanian: luQabah luFareed) also known as the Shrine of the Carnelians, is monument carved from a single sandstone rock in Iganar, Packilvania. The construction of the Shrine is believed by historians and archeologists such as Lakhad Najwad of the University of Qadash Kebir to have been commissioned by King Hulyamad II of the Kingdom of Yakhnawud, a polity of the Thalmanite civilisation over 3,000 years ago. The structure is believed to have been completed over 200 years later under King Kharniyad V of Yakhnawud. It was built as a tomb for members of the Yakhnawud royal family but became deeply associated with the religion of the Yakhnawud people as a sacred monument. The site is located in the Turshumid Plains approximately 20 kilometres from the city of Edhen in Iganar and is a tourist attraction that draws over 1 million visitors every year.
According to hieroglyphs and other imagery painted on the building, the Shrine was constructed by over 10,000 men with the help of the Thalmanite god and patron deity of the Yakhnawud, Farjil the All-Seeing, represented as a python with eyes of fire covering its entire body. Archeologists believe that the structure was hewn by hand by a mixture of slave and free labour using metal and stone tools such as chisels and quarts. Carved into the solid sandstone rock (with the rock believed to be over 1 million years old), it is interspersed with granite and limestone, showing the ancient history of this area as having at one point been volcanic and at another point being forested and wet before turning into desert after an ice age. The rock is believed to have been sacred to the Yakhnawud and other Thalmanite groups with references being found in other monuments and texts such as the Khablamiya Stone Tablets found over 100 kilometres away in Ishamhadien.
The strong association of the rock with the god Fareed, after whom it was named, was selected as an auspicious site for the burial of the Yakhnawud royal family and subsequently, the preservation of the people through maintaining ties with the dead. There are many legends and myths in Yakhnawud texts about the structure serving not only as a historical place of worship but as the gate to the underworld, where Fareed the All-Seeing dwelt, a realm accessible only by the spirits of the dead people buried there. There is a legend documented in a text by Jurmiam of Palkhoud in 500 BCE that there was an order of Magi who had learnt to fly using the supernatural powers of Carnelians extracted by ancient and long forgotten magic hence it was named the Shrine of the Carnelians.