User Reviews
Casa del Mitreo, 'the House of the Mithraeum' is a house built at the end of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century AC outside the Mérida city walls. Its size and the decoration of some of its rooms undoubtedly show that its owners were people of Hellenistic culture who were important within the society of Mérida.
The whole building is set up around three courtyards. You enter the first one through a stairway and you arrive onto a tetra style atrium with a pond to collect water, the impluvium. It seems that this area, like other areas in the house, had a second floor because of the steps that are still preserved. Several rooms come out onto this atrium, built like other ones in the house: a masonry base and the rest of the wall in rammed earth. The walls were plastered and decorated with paintings.
One of these rooms preserves the mosaic of the Cosmos. It represents a colourful and realistic mixed group of human figures that represent the different elements of the known universe, going from terrestrial and marine elements until celestial elements, but they all revolve around the essential figure of Eternity (Aeternitas).
References:The Broch of Clickimin is a large and well preserved, though somewhat restored broch near Lerwick. Originally built on an island in Clickimin Loch (now increased in size by silting and drainage), it was approached by a stone causeway. The water-level in the loch was reduced in 1874, leaving the broch high and dry. The broch is situated within a walled enclosure and, unusually for brochs, features a large 'blockhouse' between the opening in the enclosure and the broch itself. Another unusual feature is a stone slab featuring sculptured footprints, located in the causeway which approached the site. Situated across the loch is the Clickimin Leisure Centre.