Is this 5000 year-old fire temple found in Peru an ancient havan kund?

If you were living with the belief that sacred rituals such as havan or homa were performed only in India, think again!
The discovery of a small stony structure having walls coated with yellow clay and red paint on the western end of the Paraiso Complex is a temple which has been identified to be as old as 5000 years.

The research team has named it the Temple of Fire, and it has been said that the hearth situated within the structure was used to burn ceremonial offerings.
The team of researchers was led by Marco Guillen who revealed that the smoke that emanated from the fire helped the priests link up with the gods. Now, this practice is much like the Vedic fire ceremonies performed by the ancient sages. Known as Yajna, this ceremony involved chanting mantras to call upon the deities in order to receive their blessings. This fire ceremony would be done using a square sacrificial altar with an open mouth where a pile of wood would be lighted by the seers.

The Paraiso Fire Temple seems to be a bigger version of a havan kund equipped with seating space for the priests.


As per the archaeologists, the site is equivalent in age to Caral, the oldest pre-Columbian site in South America. Caral lies 200 km to the north of Peru, and is honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The entrance of the temple measures 48 cm (19-inches) in width, and leads to a space measuring eight by six metres (26 by 20 feet), which was used to burn sacrificial objects. It has four levels overall.

In Sanskrit, Peru translates into ‘Golden Mountain’ and Paru means ‘Paradise‘.

Does that mean that Paraiso was a paradisiacal land where the ancient seers lived and performed fire sacrifices?