Temenos (Greek: ; plural: , temene) is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, a sanctuary, holy grove or holy precinct: The Pythian race-course is called a temenos, the sacred valley of the Nile is the ("the rich temenos of Cronides by the Nile"), the Acropolis of Athens is the ("the holy temenos"; of Pallas). The word derives from the Greek verb (temno), "to cut". The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek , te-me-no, written in Linear B syllabic script.