A Persian God in London

We know you are diligent in studying English. We know you want to advance. That is why we have prepared an intriguing text for you today that will enrich your knowledge of the UK capital and also to help you practice. Here it is:
People are curious about secret societies. They read about the Illuminati, watch movies about the Freemasons, and have heard about the Knights Templar. But today we are going to tell you about an evidence of a much older secret society—the one about the temple of the god Mithras, located in the center of London, near the commodities exchange. Nowadays, the temple has been reconstructed and is called the London Mithraneum. It dates back to Roman times and it was the center of a religion that came from distant Persia.
The god Mithras is believed to be a Zoroastrian deity of light, or at least the idea of him came from the East before blending with Roman religious practices. Along with the conquest of new territories and peoples, the Roman Empire recognized their religions and they reached the farthest ends of the empire, where they were transformed and blended with local rituals. Particularly widespread in the Roman army, Mithraism also reached the far western ends of the vast empire under the rule of the ancient metropolis of Rome. There were worshipers of Mithras from India, to Spain, and apparently also in old Londinium—the Roman settlement on which today’s capital of the UK grew.
The god Mithras was a heroic figure in the battle between good and evil. He was often depicted in a cave defeating a bull. Sometimes the god of the sun Sol was depicted near him. Mithras was popular among the Roman military and political elite, and many places inhabited by the Roman invaders of the Isles had temples of him. The very worship of this god was of the nature of a cult, members of which shared their own secret rituals, called Mysteries. They had an elaborate system of ascension into the cult, involving seven levels of initiation. The Mithraists also had a peculiar secret handshake, and through it each of them knew that he was meeting another initiate in Mithraism. The cult flourished between the 1st and 4th centuries and was considered a threat to emerging Christianity.
The London Temple of Mithras was built in the late 2nd century AD but was only used until the early 4th century, when it was filled with sacred statues and sealed. This is most likely due to the adoption of Christianity as the state religion in Rome by Emperor Constantine, which outlawed Mithraism. The temple was easily hidden from view, as it had been built below street level to resemble the cave where the deity defeated the bull.
The Mithraneum was discovered in 1954 while excavating for the construction of Bucklersbury House, but due to the expansion and modernization of London, it was split into parts and rebuilt on Queen Victoria Street. In 2009, it was moved again near its original location, where it can be seen today.
Author: Iveta Radeva