Back to List of buildings in Civ5
Game Info[]
Vanilla[]
Next-level cultural building. Requires Monument.
Gods & Kings and Brave New World[]
Advanced religious building. Requires Shrine.
- Common traits:
- +2
Faith - +1 additional Faith with Organized Religion social policy
- +25% Gold output for this city with Theocracy social policy
- +1 Food with Feed the World Religious Belief
- +2 Culture in cities with at least 5 followers with Choral Music Religious Belief
- +2 Happiness in cities with at least 5 followers with Religious Center Religious Belief
- +2
Strategy[]
In vanilla Civilization V, the Temple increases the 
Culture of a city, speeding the growth of its territory and the civilization's acquisition of social policies. The city must contain a Monument before the Temple can be constructed. The Temple allows the creation of one 
Artist from a city's population, increasing the speed at which Great Artists appear.
Starting in Gods & Kings, the Temple is the next-level, must-have building for those wanting to establish a religion and use it. Besides its core 
Faith production, Temples may produce much more via certain beliefs, and via the Piety social policy tree. The Amphitheater replaces the Temple as the cultural building of the Classical Era.
You need a Temple in each city in order to unlock the Grand Temple.
Given that Philosophy is a prerequisite for this building, you can get a pretty significant Faith advantage early in the game by rushing straight for the Great Library, picking up Calendar while you build it and then using the free tech to pick up Philosophy. This allows you to build some very early Temples in all your cities, and gives you a significant headstart towards later Faith-centric technologies as well. Naturally, this is best combined with one of the Pantheon beliefs which give a boost to Faith from specific tiles or resource improvements, as well as vigorous exploration for religious city-states and lucky Faith boosts from Ancient Ruins. Also, Stonehenge is a powerful follow-up to the Great Library, if luck has it that no other civilization is going for it. If you then research Theology, you are pretty much guaranteed to get the Hagia Sophia for a free Great Prophet. It's worth noting that the Hagia Sophia also serves as a Temple, which leaves you entirely free to build Stonehenge in your 
Capital while researching Theology without having to worry about building a Temple there as well. Towards the end of the construction of the Hagia Sophia, you should have already gotten your first natural Great Prophet; if not, you'll get one shortly thereafter. Getting two Great Prophets so early will allow you to enhance your religion very soon after its foundation. Lastly, having a Temple in each of your cities allows you to build a Grand Temple, so following up with this wonder after the Hagia Sophia makes for the final step in what is essentially the most powerful opening in the game if you're going for a religious empire.
Civilopedia entry[]
A temple is a religious building where the faithful can come together to worship. Such buildings show that a community is fairly wealthy as well as pious, since it can afford to construct a special structure and feed and clothe the priests, acolytes, vestal virgins, or monks within. In many early cultures each family would have a small shrine in their own dwelling; the oldest known separate temple dates from the 10th millennium BC and is located in southeastern Turkey.
See also[]
- Temple in other games
