Opus Incertum rubble wall on the site of the Greek and Roman Tyrrhenian Sea port of Velia,Marina di Ascea, Campania, Italy. Ancient mortar still bonds small boulders, random pieces of stone and large chunks of brick.
Velia, Marina di Ascea, Campania, Italy: section of ancient Opus Incertum rubble wall on the excavated site of this Greek and Roman Tyrrhenian Sea port in southern Italy’s Cilento region, with mortar bonding together small boulders, random pieces of stone and reused chunks of brick. The city was founded around 538 to 535 BC by Ionian Greeks displaced by Persians from Phocaea, now in modern Turkey. They called it Hyele, but the name then changed to Ele, Elea, and finally to Velia. It became part of Roman Lucania in 273 BC. In 88 BC, it became a Roman municipality, the city retaining a right to mint coins and its citizens allowed to continue to use the Greek language. Velia had two ports, one of them on the Alento river, but after centuries of silting, both are now far from the sea. The city also declined because it was bypassed by new overland trade routes. Velia shrank to little more than a fishing village. In the 800s, many people abandoned it to escape malaria and raids by Saracen pirates, but some continued to live on the acropolis. The town, Castellamare della Bruca, survived until the late-1600s, but the acropolis was then finally deserted and the ancient city below was forgotten as it vanished under soil and vegetation. The ruins were rediscovered in 1833. Although more recent excavations by archeologist Amedeo Maiuri found fortifications, a sea wall, gateways, tombs, frescoed houses and thermal baths, parts of Velia probably remain buried. The acropolis, at the top of a paved Greek road, retains a medieval tower built over an Ionic temple, a medieval chapel and a 2,000-seat Roman theatre. Velia is now protected as an archaeological park and as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Velia, Marina di Ascea, Campania, Italy.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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