database
Database which contains the Items to be used for rendering the site. In the example below the items from the core database will be used to render the site itself.
<site
name="shell"
virtualFolder="/sitecore/shell"
physicalFolder="/sitecore/shell"
rootPath="/sitecore/content"
startItem="/home"
language="en"
database="core"
domain="sitecore"
loginPage="/sitecore/login"
content="master"
...
Default value : no default value. It should be specified by the User.