Another one crossed off the list and that makes it 10% completed, I never expected to cross them off this quickly! This was one of the easier ones to do and I was down in London again (seems I spend more time down there than in Boston at the minute!) I thought I would cross off number 88, a trip to The London Mithraerium.
I first found about this place on one of those days where I was binge reading Wikipedia articles, and found out about this Roman temple that had been discovered in the 1950's during construction on a building, which was in fact moved so as to give time to preserve this amazing site. Which was then moved about 100m away from its original place so that it could be properly maintained.
They originally thought it was an early church when they first discovered it, but quickly realised that it was of Roman origins, being constructed in the 3rd century originally to worship Mithras.
The cult of Mithras has it's origins in modern day Iran and was popular with the Roman Legions, which had several grades with rituals to observe, like any cult there were leaders and followers. I've often wondered what it would be like to join a cult, the nearest I came was when Emma and me were initiated into the cult of the platypus whilst on a visit to Phantom Peak, which by the way is one of the best interactive experiences that you can do, trust me when I say it was a brilliant night out and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again!
I've spoken before about my love of history, and again I'll point you in the direction of The British History Podcast, which delves into Roman Britain with some of my favourite episodes of the series. I love thinking about how our little island has been through so many different periods of history. This was obviously a point where there wasn't really a Britain, just many separate kingdoms that the Romans took control of and for a couple of centuries held and moulded into more of what we think of today. Religion is also something I've had an interest in, my A-levels didn't really cover the polytheism that the Romans believed in, but again I've done some studying on the subject and it interests me to learn more. This is why I wanted to go here and see the temple of Mithras in the flesh.
It's situated in a very bizarre location right next to a tube station in the heart of London, right near Bank tube station, and I thought it would be a sort of descent into darkness, I wasn't expecting the entrance way to be like going into a posh restaurant in a perfectly air conditioned building, with low ambient lighting. There honestly isn't much to see there, the pictures really show the whole thing, the show that they put on, which is a recreation of a ceremony that may have happened at the temple. A walk around and a few photos and there it was done and dusted.
So I'm now 10% of the way through my challenge list and this is where it starts to get a bit more difficult, some of the easier ones have been crossed off, leaving the more expensive trips and the ones where it's going to take time, until the next time, peace and chicken grease amigos.
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