Isis Heiligtum (Isis and Magna Mater Temple) in Mainz, Germany

All Germany Mainz Isis Heiligtum (Isis and Magna Mater Temple) An ancient Roman temple hidden in the basement of Römerpassage, a modern shopping mall. The temple is in the basement of the shopping mall that was built around and above it. Tamara Siuda / Atlas Obscura User The Isis-Heiligtum storefront inside Römerpassage mall.

Tamara Siuda / Atlas Obscura User The temple is in the basement of the shopping mall that was built around and above it. Tamara Siuda / Atlas Obscura User What do you do when you've built a shopping mall but you find an ancient Roman temple underneath part of it? If you are in Mainz, Germany, you build the mall up around it, but leave it in place to be a hidden museum to the past.

This is the "Isis-Heiligtum" (Isis Temple) in Mainz, Germany, preserved in place beneath the Römerpassage shopping mall within an easy 10-minute walk from Mainz Hauptbahnhof train station. Go downstairs into a space where you will walk over transparent glass walkways around the edges of a dual temple to Isis and Cybele (Magna Mater in Rome), two "foreign" goddesses who had considerable attention in the Roman Empire. L earn about the people who visited and worked at the temple, and an unsettling number of magical items that were buried in its grounds to curse and bless various people.

Celebrate the Saturnalia with a disembodied voiceover and some cheesy videos, and enjoy this well-designed small museum in a very unexpected location. How many ancient goddesses have a modern shopping mall as a storefront? Get more unusual and extraordinary places each week with the Atlas Obscura Places newsletter.

Your newsletter subscriptions with us are subject to Atlas Obscura's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Museum admission is free but donations are welcomed for the temple's upkeep. Stairs to the lower level are somewhat steep and the walkway is transparent glass so you can see the temple beneath, which can be a bit vertigo-inducing for those who are uncomfortable with that.

Signage is in German but guides in multiple languages are available from the guide at the upstairs entrance for those who don't understand German. Videos and voiceovers are in German and English. This Aztec structure remained hidden until the demolition of a supermarket exposed the lost temple.