The day I went underground in London… in search of Mithras…

**NEWSFLASH**
New FREE museum in London

The recently opened London Mithraeum Bloomberg Space is absolutely worth a visit. It’s not your usual museum, where quite honestly, you can get a little ‘over-informed’ after a few rooms, because it’s only got three rooms! BUT it’s an amazing three rooms.

The museum is the result of the restoration and protection of the ruins of an ancient Roman temple to the God Mithras, discovered after a bomb attack during the Second World War. When Bloomberg began the building of their current offices (above the ruins/museum) they understood the importance of this historic find and wanted to be able to share it with everyone.

Easily found about 3 minutes’ walk from ‘Bank’ tube station (there is also a handy Starbucks on your left as you descend the small hill) the entrance is identifiable by the huge sign! After showing your booking email (you HAVE to pre-book online – very easy on their website) You are handed a guide and how it all works is explained to you before you set off alone.

After taking a look and reading about some of the thousands of artifacts found during the excavation (with further information provided on iPads – very high-tech!) that include weighing scales, shoes, writing boards, jewelry and coins, you move into a darkened room and hear the dulcet tones of the wonderful Joanna Lumley, who talks you through a bit of the buildings history.

On the way down to this room (there is a lift) you walk down some stairs that take you seven metres below todays street level, which was the level the building and the roads surrounding it would have been back then. As you descend, they have helpfully marked other important events in history and where street-level would have been at that time. This is all explained in the free guidebook.

Anyway, back to the Mithraeum. Here is a quick intro to this place – no point re-writing something so well written already!

Sounds intriguing right?

Listening to lovely Joanna, you are also invited to learn a little more about three key artefacts found during the excavation.

Then you are invited to visit the temple for yourself….

You walk into an almost completely pitch-black room with a walkway around the perimeter and a small platform in the middle. I don’t want to ruin it for you (go and visit for yourself – its free!) but you are given the experience of being back on the temple, back when London was known as Londinium, an ancient Roman city.

Lights illuminate different areas of the ruins as you listen to the sounds of the male worshippers – praying to their god, Mithras. You can read up on him here (thank you Wiki).

I was there for about half an hour and the experience runs every 20 minutes – don’t forget to pre-book before you go and I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!