if anyone's interested, the temple the Big Cock is in is based off of a real life ruin:
petra is an ancient city in modern-day jordan that's very notable for its strong greco-roman architectural influences despite being 1) thousands of miles away from the source material and 2) built directly...
Thanks for this addition. Very interesting to read.
It's awful that the death scene was based on real events... it was crushing enough to me when I first read it as just a part of a fictional story. I hope the author and his passed friends have found peace.