Chances are you’ve been here briefly early on in your Breath of the Wild playthrough. Maybe, like me, you’d completely forgotten about it. There are so many beautiful and interesting places to explore in this game, but I’m glad I returned to this one.
As far as I can tell, this place doesn’t have an official name, so I’m calling it Akkala Peninsula Ruins for now. Just south of the Rist Peninsula, on the coast to the east of Tarrey Town, and to the north of Tingel Island, is an outcropping that you’ll have definitely wandered across. Technically not a real peninsula itself, as the spiral of the Rist Peninsula curls off it, this is a quiet place on the edge of the world.
What struck me about it, however, wasn’t just the autumnal trees and the stunning sunrise, but the fact that these were some of the first ruins I’d come across in my first playthrough of Breath of the Wild. Of course, the first was that of the Temple of Time. After that were the ruins at Duelling Peaks stables, but those looked to me to be no more than random columns in marshland. These ruins in Akkala were the first substantial ones I’d found on my quest, hinting at Hyrule from eras long before.
To my eyes, these ruins must be that of an ancient temple. What is left of the structure, or possibly structures, is the carved flagstone floor and stone archways. In the largest area of the building is a shallow pool. A reflecting pool, perhaps? Or something used for cleansing? It’s impossible to know, but it’s very striking. The major shrines to the goddess Hylia are all within springs, and the Great Fairies live in fountains, so the pool reinforces my temple hypothesis.
From looking at the temple from above, and on the map, to me it looks like a large complex with at least three distinct buildings. Beyond the reflecting pool is a stone tablet, pointing you to the challenge of the Rist Peninsula. What’s interesting about the layout of the whole complex is that it’s pointing diagonally — it’s not facing toward any of the cardinal directions, but off-kilter.
Honestly, I don’t know what any of this means. Will we get answers in the Breath of the Wild sequel? I don’t know. But I like this strange little spot. I fully believe that the temple’s purpose is linked to the Shrine on the Rist Peninsula, based on the tablet’s location. But whether the Shrine was erected at the same time, or whether the temple was built later to point toward the Shrine, I don’t have enough information to speculate.
What I do know is that this is a very strange ruin. The design seems so specific, there’s got to be a story there, even if it’s only in the designer’s mind.
