Cumae

(Local Name: Cuma) 35km/22mi west of Naples are the remains of Cumae (Italian Cuma, Greek Kyme), the oldest Greek settlement in Italy, founded in the ninth or eighth century B.C. and destroyed by the Saracens in the A.D. ninth century. The site has been excavated since 1926. Beyond a short tunnel, to the right, is the so-called Roman Crypt, a tunnel of Augustan date, 180m/197yd long, which runs under the acropolis to the sea. Opposite this, to the left, is the entrance of the Cave of the Sibyl (Antro della Sibilla), described by Virgil (Aeneid VI, 43 ff.) as having a hundred entrances and a hundred issues, "from which resound as many voices, the oracles of the prophetess". This is a passage hewn from the rock, 131m/143yd long, 2.5m/2.75yd wide and 5m/17ft high, with numerous side passages opening on to the sea which provide light and air. At the far end is the actual cave of the oracle, a square chamber with three vaulted recesses. From the Cave of the Sibyl a ramp leads up to the acropolis. The road leads past a lookout terrace to the remains of the Temple of Apollo and beyond this, on the summit of the hill, the ruins of a Temple of Jupiter which was used as a church in early Christian times. From the top of the hill there are magnificent views of the sea, extending as far as Gaeta and the Isole Ponziane, and of the Phlegraean Fields to the east.

On the south side of the excavated area is the Amphitheater (129m/141yd long, 104m/114yd across, 21 rows of seats).

To the southeast is the Lago del Fusaro, linked with the sea by two canals, a shallow lake (8m/26ft deep) which is used for oyster-culture.