Great Temple ( Yavin 4 ) / Legends The Great Temple , commonly referred to as the Massassi Temple , was built on Yavin 4 by the Massassi to worship Naga Sadow , a Sith Lord who had enslaved and mutated the Massassi using Sith alchemy . The Temple later housed the Rebel Alliance base , known as Massassi Base , and the Jedi Praxeum . The Temple was destroyed during the Yuuzhan Vong occupation of Yavin 4 . History . Ancient history . Around 5000 BBY , having fled the Great Hyperspace War , the Sith Lord Naga Sadow hid in the jungles of Yavin 4 alongside his loyal Sith warriors called the Massassi . They settled on a site on the Ersham Ridge covered with thick rainforests , and Sadow ordered his warriors to clear the area and start building moliminous monuments in his honor . Through alchemical experimentations , the Sith Lord mutated the Massassi , turning them into dark side - wielding monsters . One of the monuments built by the Massassi on the jungle moon was the Great Temple , a colossal ziggurat of stone . The Great Temple was so huge that it seemed impossible it could have been built without the aid of modern gravitonic construction techniques , yet all evidence pointed to mere hand technology and simple machines . How such an enormous structure was built was still a matter of speculation at the time of the Galactic Civil War . The method used by Sadow ' s slaves to cut and transport metric - ton monoliths from the crust of the moon without disturbing the surface remained a mystery to modern - day scientists . The Massassi continued to worship Naga Sadow at the Temple , even after he entered a state of hibernation inside a sarcophagus . The former Sith warriors perpetuated that cult for over a thousand years , long after their god ' s presumed death at the hands of Freedon Nadd , until Exar Kun eliminated most of their numbers in 3996 BBY . However , Kun allowed the Massassi warrior Kalgrath to remain behind in the isolation chambers , guarding the Temple in a state of hibernation . Galactic Civil War . During the Galactic Civil War , Rebel Alliance scout Dr ' uun Unnh discovered the temple . The Alliance chose Yavin 4 due to its exclusion from official Imperial maps , after being forced to secretly abandon their former base on Dantooine . After retrieving the Temple ' s key from the Yavin Vassilika , a fabled gem - like statuette , Alliance generals Jan Dodonna and Roons Sewell were tasked with establishing the " Massassi Station " — also known as " Yavin Base , " callsign " Base One " — within the Great Temple . That same year , the Star Tours security check - in droid G2 - 9T heard of the base , and accidentially let slip of its existence before stopping himself . However , despite the revelation of that imprudent droid , the Empire did not get wind of the base ' s location until one year later . Following its refit by the Alliance , the interior of the Great Temple had changed so much that its original Massassi builders would never have recognized it . The rock walls had been mostly replace with metal , and poured paneling had been used to divide chambers instead of wood . The Rebels had also excavated new layers into the rock below the ziggurat to create a series of underground hangars linked by a turbolift platform . On the ground level and upper floors , many rooms had been converted for modern service , such as the War Room . Only the Grand Audience Chamber , a vast throne room located on the uppermost level of the Great Temple had been spared , for it had been deemed too beautiful and clean for the technicians to modify . The proper maintenance of the new base required an abundance of staff , including a janitor and several deck officers , some of whom were barely kids at the time . Additionally , a section of the base was given over to refugees . One year after after the establishment of the Massassi Station , the Rebel Alliance launched its assault on the first Death Star from this facility . After the battle , the Royal Award Ceremony was held in the Great Temple to honor the victors . However , the time of revelry proved to be short - lived . Six months after the destruction of the Death Star over Yavin , the Rebel Alliance was forced to abandon the Great Temple . During the evacuation , General Dodonna set off a series of concussion charges in the Temple . The sabotage knocked out a squadron of TIE / IT Interdictor starfighter s and the General was presumed killed . Luke Skywalker established his Jedi Praxeum in the temple in 11 ABY . It was attacked in 12 ABY by Admiral Natasi Daala ' s forces . Later that same year , Kyle Katarn confronted , and after an intense battle in the underground portion of the Temple , defeated the Dark Jedi Desann during the Empire Reborn assault . In 14 ABY , Tavion Axmis commanded her Reborn to suck the Force energy out of the above - ground portion of the Temple . The temple was partially demolished in 23 ABY during the Third Battle of Yavin , but promptly reconstructed by a joint New Republic - Jedi effort throughout 24 ABY . The Temple was destroyed down to ground level by the Yuuzhan Vong in 26 ABY , although the underground levels remained partially intact . Layout . Internally , the Great Temple was divided into four levels , each representing a step of the ziggurat — each level was thus larger in floor plan than the one above , but all were outfitted on broadly similar plans with small cells , chambers and corridors around a large central space . When the Rebel Alliance set - up their base , the outer surface of the Massassi Temple was left as untouched as possible . Interior chambers , however , were roughly hewn by the Rebels prior to being filled in with chambers and a main central lift cluster . Rebel engineers also reinforced the temple ' s original stone floors with ferrocrete . The base was powered by a generating station composed of stolen Imperial Star Destroyer reactor components two kilometers from the temple . The topmost level , was almost entirely taken up by the Grand Audience Chamber , used as a ceremonial hall by the Alliance garrison and later employed by the Jedi Academy as a teaching space . Under the Alliance , the next level contained officers ' quarters , and the base ' s security , communications and medical facilities , with the central room serving as a command center ; the Jedi would later convert this level entirely to accommodation and storage . On the level below , the central chamber was outfitted by the Alliance as the War Room , later re - named as the Strategy Center by the Jedi : this was where the Alliance commanders coordinated the fighter attack on the first Death Star in 0 BBY . The surrounding rooms on this level , used as stores and technical workshops by the Alliance , were converted by the Jedi to meeting - rooms , communications and computing bays , and kitchens and dining halls . The lowest level of the temple was used by the Rebels and the Jedi alike as a vast hangar bay to store starfighters and other vehicles ; there was also a second hangar beneath , plus cellars and catacombs that remained largely unused in both phases of reoccupation . Access to the hangar was by a set of ground - level blast - doors , opening out onto a landing pad . A viaduct was located near the Temple ' s entrance , along with an altar and a fountain with stone pillars . An overlook was available across a canyon . During the Jedi period , the average ground level around the structure ' s exterior had risen , so that the main entrance was at War Room level , and many of the students thought of the entire hangar complex as being essentially underground - although the hangar doors must have remained accessible , the area in front of them no longer served as the main landing zone . The entrance faced a clearing , while a river now flowed close to the temple along the other two sides . Also during this time , a room known as the Hall of Judgment was built within the temple . The Jedi divided some spaces into sleeping and refresher units for the students , and hanged heavy drapes above the window holes . The original windows of the Temple had no glass because of Yavin 4 ' s warm climate . However , heavy storms would arise every few months , and rain would whip through the jungle while the temperature dropped significantly . When that happened , the drapes kept the temple dry and warm . Behind the scenes . The Great Temple was first seen in , the first installment of the original trilogy , which was released in 1977 . The temple exterior was actually filmed in the ruins of the city of Tikal , . A matte painting based on a concept art by Ralph McQuarrie was also used to portray the front entrance of the Great Temple . This painting was enhanced digitally for the 1997 Special Edition release of the film . In the of " A New Hope " , the " Mavassi outpost " was an Imperial installation located on Yavin . Princess Leia was imprisoned here , and Annikin Starkiller and his Wookee allies attempted to free her , but she had already been sent to the Imperial space fortress . The building became the " Massassi Outpost " and a Rebel base in the second draft of the story . Inconsistencies . Throughout the history of the Expanded Universe , there have been many different descriptions of the Great Temple . In the 1980s early series of comics " Classic Star Wars " , which was drawn by Al Williamson , the Great Temple closely resembled some of the real monuments found on the site of Tikal , especially the shrine summit of the , with only two levels and a rectangular base . Later sources tend to portray the temple as a ziggurat — a terraced pyramid — but disagree on the global shape and number of levels . While both " " and " Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds " described the Great Temple as a pyramid with a square base and four levels , the video games " " and " " portrayed it as a truncated cone , and " Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy " had it standing on an octogonal base . The " Official Star Wars Fact File 37 " stated that the temple had seven stories , while " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " argued that it consisted of five distinct levels , plus an observation deck at the top . In " " and in " " , the station was depicted as being a small , grim - looking hangar with a control room in the back . However , in " " , it was depicted as having a more elaborate interior , with hangars , training rooms , and the Grand Audience Chamber . The 2001 video game " " featured an alternate history scenario where Darth Vader attacks the Rebels on Yavin 4 in revenge for the Death Star . The player , flying in Vader ' s TIE Advanced x1 , can fly into the Great Temple to attack the Rebel transports there . In " " , it was seen as containing a large hangar , and many rooms , including the room where Princess Leia and other Rebel leaders were stationed during the Battle of Yavin .