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Where were the true Eleusinian Mysteries celebrated?

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painted Greek vase — mystery religion Painted Greek vase showing a Dionysiac feast, 450–425 bc; in the Louvre, Paris.

The true Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated exclusively at the sanctuary in the ancient city of Eleusis, located in Attica, Greece.1

While the festival was later incorporated into the Athenian religious calendar and involved a solemn procession of initiates (mystai) traveling from Athens to Eleusis, the central rites—performed within the Telesterion, or Hall of Initiation—could only be experienced at the site in Eleusis. Although preliminary purification rites for the Lesser Mysteries were held at Agrai on the stream of Ilissos, the Greater Mysteries, which constituted the primary initiation, required participants to travel to Eleusis.21