adytum

Later that night, I peeked into the center’s adytum, a dark and lovely stone chapel whose altar glowed with candlelight.

From New York Times ● Dec. 29, 2011

The crypt of adytum, used by priests for unknown rituals, was about 12 by 13 feet, roughly built, its floor stuccoed.

From Time Magazine Archive

Two of the biggest, sir, stood in the adytum to form the baldachin over the Ark. But the wings of thim sculptures was intindid for horns.

From Sixes and Sevens by O. Henry

I must find him: I must continue my lessons: I must lead him into the adytum of Wisdom.

From Last Days of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton

Author's hospitable reception there, and admission to the adytum, 119.

From An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa by James Grey Jackson

And sometimes a dreadful voice issuing from the adyta has destroyed them*.

From Arguments Of Celsus, Porphyry, And The Emperor Julian, Against The Christians Also Extracts from Diodorus Siculus, Josephus, and Tacitus, Relating to the Jews, Together with an Appendix by Thomas Taylor

The adyta, or innermost parts of temples, were accessible only to priests.

From Readings from Latin Verse With Notes by Curtis C. Bushnell

The magic rod of fanaticism is preserved in the very adyta of human nature; and needs only the re-exciting warmth of a master hand to bud forth afresh and produce the old fruits.

From Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

What wonderful things they have heard from the adyta themselves!

From Arguments Of Celsus, Porphyry, And The Emperor Julian, Against The Christians Also Extracts from Diodorus Siculus, Josephus, and Tacitus, Relating to the Jews, Together with an Appendix by Thomas Taylor

The shrines are "Harim," or sacred, having adyta which are kept secret from the prying eyes of men, and, therefore, should be served by eunuchs.

From Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 1 by Sir Richard Francis Burton