Mithras in Syria

Mithraeum of Dura Europos

The most emblematic of the Syrian Mithraea was discovered in 1933 by a team led by the Russian historian Mikhaïl Rostovtzeff.

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Mount Nemrut Dağı

Mount Nemrut or Nemrud is one of the highest peaks in the eastern Taurus Mountains, southeastern Turkey. On its summit large statues stand around what is supposed to be a royal tomb from the 1st century BC.

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Mithraeum of Sidon

The Mithraeum of Sidon may have escaped destruction because the Mithras worshippers walled up the entrance to the underground sanctuary.

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Head of Mithras at Nemrud Dag

The colossal head has been identified as a solar god, Apollo-Mihr-Mithras-Helios-Hermes.

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Tauroctony from Absalmos

The relief depict several unusual scenes from Mithras’s myth.

Antiochus I shakes hands with Mithras

Antiochus I of Commagene shakes Mithras hands in this relief from the Nemrut Dagi temple.

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Mithraeum of Caesarea Maritima

This shrine developed towards the end of 2nd century and remained active until beginning 4th.

Mithraea of Dülük

The Mithraea of Doliche, ancient Dülük, Turkey, are unique in that they represent two distinct shrines on the same site.

Lion relief from Nemrut Dağı

The lion relief from Nemrut Dag has the moon and several stars over his body.

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Lion-headed Aion from Sidon

The controversial Italian journalist Edmon Durighello discovered this marble statue of a young naked Aion in 1887.

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Mithraeum of Hawarti

The Mithraeum of Hauarte or Hawarte, which preserves colourful frescoes, it’s the latest know and used.

Frescoes of 'Magis' from Dura Europos

Some scholars have speculated that the scrolls both figures hold in their hands represent Eastern doctrines brought to the Western world.

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Caesarea Maritima

Caesarea was first settled by the Phoenicians in the 4th century BC. In 63 BC, the Romans annexed the region and Caesarea became the seat of the Roman procurators.

Commagene

Commagene was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Iranian Orontid dynasty that had ruled over Armenia.

Doliche

Dülük is a village in Şehitkamil district, a district of Gaziantep, Turkey.

Dura Europos

Dura-Europos was a Hellenistic, Parthian and Roman frontier city built on the Euphrates River. It was founded around 300 BC by Seleucus I Nicator. The Romans took Dura-Europos in 165 AD.

Hawarte

Al-Ankawi is a Syrian town located in the Ziyarah Subdistrict of the al-Suqaylabiyah District in Hama Governorate.

Nemrut Dağı

Mount Nemrut or Nemrud is a 2,134-metre-high mountain in southeastern Turkey, notable for the summit where a number of large statues are erected around what is assumed to be a royal tomb from the 1st century BC.

Samosata

Samsat, formerly Samosata is a small town in the Adıyaman Province of Turkey, situated on the upper Euphrates river.

Secia

Jabal al-Druze, officially Jabal al-Arab, is an elevated volcanic region in the As-Suwayda Governorate of southern Syria.

Sidon

Alexander the Great seized Sidon from the Persians in 333 BC. It became a Roman colony during the reign of Elagabalus.

Zeugma

Zeugma was an ancient Hellenistic era Greek and then Roman city of Commagene; located in modern Gaziantep Province, Turkey.