This sanctuary, where the cult of the ''great goddesses'' Demeter and Persephone was celebrated, was one of the great shrines of Antiquity. The ruins (discovered in 1815), partly from the Roman era, still exude a magical aura: the Great Forecourt (2C AD); the Great Propylaia (2C AD), the monumental entrance to the sanctuary; the Lesser Propylaia (1C BC); and the Telesterion, in the heart of the sanctuary, a majestic building with traces from every era - from the Mycenaean to the Roman.