The temple is located about 3.5 km. northeast of the town of Pirdop. The area and the river that flows through it are called "Elensko" and "Elenska reka", and the ruins of the basilica "Elenski monastery" or "St. Ilia" monastery.
The place is ancient Thracian sanctuary of the Velikoilaleti tribe. Prof. Alexander Fall located in this area the Thracian legend about the descent of a deer from Stara Planina and its sacrifice by the local population on a certain day of the year. This is also one of the assumptions about the origin of the toponym. The legend is not without basis, as during the excavations of the grounds and the temple, a large amount of scattered deer bones and horns were found. Another thesis for the origin of the toponym is from the Bulgarianization of the ethnonym "Hellenes" (Greeks) in later times, according to the affiliation of the basilica in the early Byzantine era.
