- [[Military Communities and Temple Patronage by David Walsh#id283954026 the Mithras cult required a temple to function]] > [!quote] [[An Ancient Roman Cult's Rituals Included Feasting, Fire, and Floor Cleaning via Atlas Obscura]] > Mithraea found in the [United Kingdom](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/temple-of-mithras), Romania, Syria, Germany, [Italy](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mithraeum-at-santa-maria-capua-vetere), [Israel](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/caesarea-maritima-mithraeum), and elsewhere have a nearly identical layout: a central room, or nave, with rows of benches on either side and an altar at the far end. Most Mithraea were built sunken into the ground; some were actually inside caves or underground chambers. The effect of entering a Mithraeum was meant to be transportive, says Egri. “You are going to a different world,” she says. “You are able to touch things that are not meant to be touched, or experience things which are difficult to understand.” > > Inside, cult members would have been watched over by an intricate relief or statue known as the tauroctony, which portrayed the god Mithras slaying a bull, surrounded by smaller images that included figures from mythology and the Zodiac. Many Mithraea were excavated decades ago, their carvings and other embellishments already well-studied. But the authors of the recent paper considered an aspect of these cult chambers no one had thought to look at before: the temple floors.