About mid way between Housesteads Roman Fort and Chesters Roman Fort is a fairly large car park on the south side of the B6318, the road that follows the line of Hadrian's Wall. This is Brocolitia, also known as Carrawburgh, and although it is not immediately obvious from the car park, it's a stop that is well worth making, as it allows access to a monument that is unique on Hadrian's Wall, the Brocolitia Mithraeum, or Temple of Mithras.
The Temple stands close to the site of Carrawburgh Roman Fort, known to the Romans as Brocolitia. The fort is largely unexcavated, but the temple has been well examined. On display are copies of mithraic altars found during excavation on the site.
The Temple of Mithras can be found in the valley of a stream immediately below and to the south west of Carrawburgh Fort. Mithras was a Persian warrior god who, according to legend, entered a cave and killed a bull that had been created at the dawn of time. The cult of Mithras placed great emphasis on valour, honour, and military prowess, and Temples of Mithras, or mithraea, were fairly common in civilian settlements close to Roman forts. Several are known to have existed along Hadrian's Wall, but Carrawburgh's is the only one that can be seen today.
Temples of Mithras tended to be sunk into the surrounding landscape and be entirely without windows, in an attempt to recreate the sense of the cave in which the bull was slain. What you find at Carrawburgh is the stone base of a rectangular building, with walls rising, at their highest, up to about eight courses.
Inside the temple entrance is a small lobby with a hearth and statue of a mother goddess. A wooden screen separates the lobby from the main temple. Within the main body of the temple are statues of Mithras' attendants Cautopates and Cautes. A narrow central passage is flanked by two earthen benches. The far end of the temple housed three altars, one depicting Mithras with his crown. Rituals, including sacrifices, would be conducted in this altar area.
Only the fort's earthworks are now visible, the Wall at this point and the fort's north ramparts having been demolished for the construction of General Wade's early 18th-century military road (now the B6318). The late 19th-century archaeologist John Clayton carried out a partial excavation of the site, revealing a military bath-house outside the fort's west gate (in 1873) and the fort's south-west corner-tower (in 1876).
View few more pictures HERE Pictures taken by Ken Fitzpatrick.
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