This book argues that temples in Mesopotamia appear only in the 4th millennium BC, and that only three large oval compounds explored at Khafadje, Tell el Obeid and El Hiba may be interpreted as temples for the Early Dynastic Period. It shows that among the Uruk period buildings discovered at Warka , only the so-called Riemchen- and Steingebaude present the most ancient temples of their kind in Mesopotamia.