Green-leafed bamboo canes and pink and white hibiscus bushes flank the Via di Porta Rosa, a Hellenistic paved road built by Greek colonists to link the districts and two ports of Elea, founded around 535 BC facing the Tyrrhenian Sea at Marina di Ascea, Campania, southern Italy. The city site, known to the Romans as Velia, is now an archaeological park and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Velia, Marina di Ascea, Campania, Italy: bamboo canes and dark pink and white hibiscus bushes flank the Via di Porta Rosa, an ancient Greek paved road built in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC to link the northern and southern quarters of the city of Elea, its acropolis and its two ports, one on the Tyrrhenian Sea and the other on the Alento river. The road, spanned by the Porta Rosa or Pink Gate, was the principal artery and thoroughfare of the city. It is five metres (16 ft 4 in) wide, paved with limestone blocks and has a gutter or rainwater channel on one side. The Via di Porta Rosa is a superb example of Hellenistic technical prowess and workmanship. Elea was founded around 538 to 535 BC by Ionian Greeks displaced by Persians from Phocaea in Asia Minor. The city’s original name, Hyele, changed over time to Ele, Elea, and lastly to Velia. The Romans took control in 273 BC and when it became a Roman municipality in 88 BC, the city retained the right to mint coins and its citizens kept their right to speak Greek rather than Latin. Velia’s ports turned it into an important commercial centre, but it declined when the ports silted up and it was bypassed by new overland trade routes. In the 9th century, most citizens left to escape malaria and pirate raids, but some stayed to live on the acropolis, which was finally abandoned in the late-1600s. The vanished ruins below the acropolis were rediscovered in 1833. More recent excavations found fortifications, a sea wall, gateways, frescoed houses and thermal baths. The city site is now an archaeological park and part of a wider UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Size: 4188px × 2787px
Location: Velia, Marina di Ascea, Campania, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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