The oldest Greek colony on the Italian mainland, and the home of the Sibyl. Founded by Greeks around 740 BC, Cumae guarded the Bay of Naples and helped give Rome its alphabet. Cut into the rock beneath the acropolis is a long trapezoidal tunnel, the Antro della Sibilla, where the prophetess of Apollo was said to deliver her riddling oracles, the same Sibyl who, in Virgil, leads Aeneas down to the underworld nearby. Whatever the tunnel really was, walking its dim length toward the distant light is one of the eerier experiences in Italy.
Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.
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