Telesterion

thumb|247x247px|General view of the site of the Telesterion in Eleusis thumb|200x200px|Another View of Telesterion (Initiation Hall), Center for the Eleusinian Mysteries, [[Eleusis]] The Telesterion ("Initiation Hall" from Gr. τελείω, "to complete, to fulfill, to consecrate, to initiate") was a great hall and sanctuary in Eleusis, one of the primary centers of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The hall had a fifty-five yard square roof that could cover three-thousand people, but no one revealed what happened during these events beyond there being "something done, something said, and something shown". This building was built in the 7th century BCE and was an important site until it was destroyed in the 4th century CE. Devoted to Demeter and Persephone, these initiation ceremonies were the most sacred and ancient of all the religious rites celebrated in Greece.

== History == It is disputed when the site of the Telesterion is believed to have been originally built. There is evidence to suggest that the temple was created in the 7th century BCE, but historians know that it was created at least by the time of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (650–550 BCE). The construction of Telesterion took place in ten different phases.