Cerveteri - Etruscan Cemetery

To the north of Cerveteri, extending along the edge of the tufa hill known as the Banditaccia, is a large Etruscan cemetery (seventh-first centuries B.C.); a city of the dead which bears impressive witness, in the scale of the necropolis and the richness of the buried goods, to the importance attached by the Etruscans to the cult of the dead. On either side of a "main street" some 2km/1.5mi long, with a number of side streets, lie hundreds of tombs, including huge tumuli up to 30m/99ft in diameter and many tomb chambers hewn from the rock in the form of dwelling-houses, often with several rooms. Many tombs have holes showing the point of entry of early tomb-robbers (a torch should be taken). The most impressive gravestones include those of the Tomba dei Capitelli, Tomba dei Dolii, Tomba dei Vasi Greci, Tomba dei 13 Cadaveri, Tomba dei Rilievi, Tomba della Casetta, Tomba dei Letti e Sarcofagi, as well as the Tumulo della Cornice and the Tumulo Ophelia Maroi. Of the underground tombs, particular mention should be made of the Tomba dei Rilievi, with painted bas-relief representations of everyday objects.