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Monumentum

Mithraeum of Housesteads

The Housesteads Mithraeum is an underground temple, now burried, discovered in 1822 in a slope of the Chapel Hill, outside of the Roman Fort at the Hadrian's Wall.
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The New Mithraeum
12 Aug 2021
Updated on May 2026
The mithraeum was excavated in 1898. It consisted of a rectangular room flanked with benches, at the end was a sanctuary which contained a relief of Mithras surrounded by the zodiac. It survives as a circular platform, about 11 metres across, set into a southeast-facing slope to a maximum depth of 1.1 metres. None of the stonework is visible. Lying on the ground surface in the centre is what appears to be a section of stone water channel, and about 5 metres to the east is a silted spring containing some stone, but no apparent walling in situ, into which is inserted a modern porcelain basin for cattle…

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