There was a prescribed place of worship. I know that there are no holy places upon this earth. We are not idolaters. God is Spirit. And they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth.
True worship is spiritual.
We have no material altar. We have no literal mercy-seat. Yet, God has always had a prescribed place of worship. During the forty years Israel spent in the wilderness, the prescribed place of divine worship was the tabernacle. Later, the temple of God was established at Jerusalem.