Massassi Site / Legends The Massassi Site , also known as the Massassi ruins , was a region of Yavin 4 , a jungle moon orbiting the Outer Rim planet Yavin Prime . The site comprised a group of stone temples that were built around 5000 BBY by order of the exiled Sith Lord Naga Sadow , and it was named after the Massassi warriors who once inhabited it and erected its monuments . Although the Massassi temples were scattered across the surface of the jungle moon , some of the oldest and most importants temples belonged to the Site . Those would be known millennia later as the Great Temple , the Palace of the Woolamander and the Temple of the Blueleaf Cluster . In the wake of a devastating battle between the forces of Exar Kun and the Jedi Order , the ravaged complex was abandoned for several millennia . The Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress and the Padawan Anakin Skywalker were amongst the rare visitors of the Massassi complex , on which they dueled in 22 BBY . The Massassi Site was reoccupied in the early days of the Galactic Civil War , when the Alliance to Restore the Republic established one of their central bases of operation in the Great Temple . The area was abandoned once again following the Battle of Yavin , but this cluster of ancient ruins housed the Provisional Council of the New Republic around 5 ABY . Six years later , the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker decided to use the Great Temple as the site of his Jedi Praxeum . The Massassi Site remained in use until 26 BBY , with the destruction of Skywalker ' s academy by the extra - galactic humanoids who called themselves the Yuuzhan Vong . History . A Sith Lord in exile . In 5000 BBY , at the end of the devastating conflict known as the Great Hyperspace War , a space battle occurred between the forces of Dark Lord of the Sith Naga Sadow and the fleet of Empress Teta , leader of the Koros system . Sadow ' s forces , who had just fought and won another battle with his rival Ludo Kressh , were too diminished to sustain the assault . However , the Dark Lord himself managed to fake his death . Aboard his " Derriphan " - class battleship , the " Corsair " , Sadow fled to the uncharted regions and limped to the fourth moon of Yavin Prime , located within the Outer Rim Territories . On this hospitable moon , he wished to rebuild the Sith Empire with the help of a few Massassi , the warriors of the Sith species . Sadow ordered the Massassi to assemble monuments , so his crew burned a piece of forest with their battleship ' s concussion missiles , and then expanded outward from the burned clearing . An army of Massassi workers used their machetes to cut the lianas interconnected with felling trees , then mowed down the said trees with cables . When the surface of the site had been scoured clear of the jungle vegetation , the Massassi began drawing up the plans of their future temples , and then the construction started . The primary material of their constructions was a sedimentary calcite compound with certain conductive alchemical impurities . Such compounds were similar to those that could be found on Korriban and Ziost , the homeworlds of the Sith species . The Sith survivors named this newly domesticated region " Massassi Site " after themselves , and they established their stronghold in the Great Temple . While building the temples for their wordly master , the Massassi came to worship the red orb of Yavin Prime as a deity , the god Yavin who filled the skies of the fourth moon . The warriors developed an inferiority complex , and they found a new purpose in the building of temples : reach the sky and achieve godly status themselves . Even after Sadow ' s death , the mutated descendents of his Massassi continued to inhabit the Site . Den of Exar Kun . In 3996 BBY , a Human Jedi Knight named Exar Kun was seduced by the dark side of the Force . Kun discovered the spirit of Freedon Nadd , who led him back to Sadow ' s tomb on Yavin 4 . Perfecting his dark powers , Exar Kun appointed himself the new Dark Lord of the Sith . While amassing his own army of Dark Jedi , he subdued the local Massassi , forcing them to build new temples in his honor . Kun also added a roof comb to the Great Temple , which was intended to house arcane rituals . When the alliance of the Jedi and the Republic threatened his newfound glory , Kun used the Massassi ' s souls to power his own greed , destroying them in the process . At the same moment , the Jedi army orbiting the moon created a devastating wall of light , a powerful salvo of light side energy , which they launched at Yavin 4 . This attack set the moon ' s jungles on fire , burning the rain forest of the Massassi Site to the ground . Much of the buildings that stood on the moon were also destroyed in the process . Since most of the Sith warriors were dead , and others had fled the moon using emergency spacecrafts , the temples of the Massassi Site were abandoned for millennia . The Jedi Order ensured that the ecosystem of Yavin 4 would be restored by constructing a subterreanean terraforming station , which was known as the Lost City of the Jedi after it was abandoned . Showdown on the Massassi Site . In 22 BBY , when a pan - galactic conflict known as the Clone Wars had been raging for four months , the Jedi Anakin Skywalker was led to Yavin 4 in pursuit of a mysterious female Dark Jedi named Asajj Ventress . After engaging combat in the jungle , the two ended up fighting in the Massassi complex . The duel ended on a temple ' s roof when Skywalker gave up to his rage . He caused the stone Ventress was standing on to crumble , causing her to fall off of the edge of the building . Roaring in rage , the Jedi left her for dead . However , Ventress had in fact survived the fall , and she returned to her allies to keep fighting in the war . Rebel Alliance ' s headquarters . Thousands of years later , the Alliance to Restore the Republic was founded in reaction to the Galactic Empire , a despotic regime led by Emperor Palpatine In the early days of the resistance , Alliance members scouted Yavin 4 and decided to establish their primary base on the Massassi Site . The Sullustan naturalist Dr ' uun Unnh gave their modern names to the temples in the site . These included the Temple of the Blueleaf Cluster , the Palace of the Woolamander , and the Great Temple itself . The Alliance chose to specifically settle in the ruins of the Great Temple , as it was the largest structure in the area . In order to meet their new base ' s energy needs , the Rebels also built a power - generating station . The Rebels also maintained a few smaller command posts in various ruined structures of the surrounding area . In 0 BBY , the Alliance launched their desperate assault against the Empire ' s " Death Star " , a moon - sized battlestation that had enough firepower to destroy planets . The resulting combat , which came to be known as the Battle of Yavin , ended with the destruction of the Death Star and a decisive victory for the Alliance . Following that crushing defeat , the Empire launched a series of attacks in retaliation , and the rebels were forced to leave Yavin 4 six months after the Death Star ' s demise . Restful gardens of the new Jedi . In 4 ABY , the Galactic Empire was defeated at the Battle of Endor , and the Alliance evolved into a the democratic governement named the New Republic . One year later , the Republic established the headquarters of the New Republic Provisional Council in the refitted Palace of the Woolamander . However , when the new government recaptured the world of Coruscant , the Senate was relocated on this planet , which had been the galactic seat of power for millennia . The Massassi Site then remained unoccupied until 11 ABY , when Luke Skywalker decided to establish his Jedi academy on Yavin 4 . The new government decided to establish a New Jedi Order to further protect its institutions , and the history - loaded Massassi Site appeared as the ideal location to train fresh Jedi recruits in relative safety and autarcy . Aside from rearrangeing the temples , the Jedi also installed their training grounds on the Massassi Site , notably in a set of ruins located to the South of the Great Temple . The old Rebel power generator had been repaired by Skywalker and his droid R2 - D2 during their preparation for the Jedi academy . While the Rebel Alliance had been far too busy in its war against the Empire to bother with archaeological inspections , Master Skywalker and his students took the time to survey the Massassi Site in detail , discovering other temples — including the Temple Atun — and retrieving ancient artifacts like the Books of Massassi . In 25 ABY , a species of extra - galactic aliens known as the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy , starting one of the most devastating conflicts ever fought in history . Thanks to an illusory projection generated by the Force , the New Jedi Order ' s were preserved for a time , but the Yuuzhan Vong eventually assaulted Yavin 4 in 26 ABY and drove the Jedi out . Now the invaders had captured the planet , they used damutek s — giant , star - shaped organic buildings — to raze the buildings from the Massassi Site and began terraforming the moon ' s surface . Four years later , the Yuuzhan Vong were defeated following the Battle of Yuuzhan ' tar , but Grand Master Luke Skywalker decided not to rebuild his academy on the Massassi Site , opting to establish a new one on the planet Ossus instead . Layout . A vast area surrounded by forests , the Massassi Site comprised the Great Temple , a fortress of the Massasi people , and two other monuments located to the South - East zone , known to the modern archaeologists as the Temple of the Blueleaf Cluster and the Palace of the Woolamander . In 11 ABY , orbital surveys revealed that more structures still lay buried under the thick vegetation , but the Alliance had been far too wrapped up in its struggle against the Galactic Empire to conduct thorough archaeological expeditions . The Massassi site was crossed by a wide warm river of a sapphire - blue color overlaid with muddy swirls of brown . This river divided the area into three parcels , each with its own temple . When the Alliance to Restore the Republic took up its quarters on the site , the considerable clearing in front of the Great Temple was turned into a landing pad for incoming starships , and a power generator was built two kilometers away from the west wall of the temple . On the uppermost level of the temple , the Rebels constructed an observation deck that allowed them to see the entire Massassi Site from above the trees . Other notable features of the Massassi Site were a a circular water fountain and a viaduct ending in a reflecting pool . By the time of the Galactic Civil War , the pool was completely dry and invaded by vegetation , but the fountain was still functional . Behind the scenes . The Massassi Site first appeared in , the first installment of the original trilogy , which was released in 1977 . The forests and the temples of the Massassi Site were filmed in the ruins of the Tikal National Park in . The same Tikal location was also used in the 1978 " Star Wars Holiday Special " to portray the green canopy of the then unnamed Rwookrrorro — capital city of the Wookiee planet Kashyyyk . The shot in " Star Wars Episode IV " where a Rebel sentry oversees the " Millennium Falcon " landing on the Massassi Site was shot on top of , looking east where the roof combs of , and can be seen . Today , this same shot is often recreated by tourists and photographers who visit the Tikal site . An early depiction of the Massassi Site was often featured throughout the 1980s series of comics " Classic Star Wars " , which was written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Al Williamson . The temples shown in this series were shaped more like the rectangular summit shrines of Tikal temples rather than the whole structures . However , later depictions of the Massassi Site ' s temples in canon more closely resemble full .