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Napoli Underground
Napoli Underground is a labor of love . . . a result of our passion for speleology and our love of Naples. With this site we hope to spread the word about this unique and wonderful "city beneath a city", the sottosuolo, or underground of Naples and its history going back more than 4000 years. The site presents a complete database of caverns, tunnels, acqueducts and passageways mapped, photographed and explored for more than 50 years by the Centro Speleologico Meridionale or "Southern Speleological Center". Each database page references a 'cavity number' which may be a cavern from quarrying, an aqueduct, a passageway, a cistern or reservoir, or other void beneath the city. Database listings with photographs or computer mapping are indicated, and some have even been videotaped with lo-res video available for computer viewing.
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Running beneath Naples and surrounding area is an underground geothermal zone called "i Campi Flegrei" or the burning fields. It is a fabled geothermal area running from Mount Vesuvius beneath a wide area including Pompei, Herculanium, Naples and over to Pozzuoli and the coastal Baia area. Over millennia extreme geoothermal pressure has helped form a strong, durable yellow sandstone called tufo. It runs in deep veins beneath Naples and the area around it in strata which are found at different depths. Some of the strong and easily worked tuffo was mined in open pits over the years, but much of the tufo which was in great demand as a principal building material for villas and palaces, and even the city's walls, came from huge excavated caverns beneath the city. Huge blocks were hauled to the surface through large shafts called the "occhio di monte" of "eye of the mountain".
Additionally the Greeks dug long and elaborate acqueducts beneath the city more than 2,500 years ago. After the tuffo was quarried and used as building materials, during roughly the Angevin, Aragonese and Bourbon periods, the resulting caverns were used to form water reservoirs into which water was diverted from the main aqueducts. These provided fresh water to the villas and palaces above. Well shafts were also dug offering access to the reservoirs below. Over the centuries a massive honeycomb of caverns and passageways has been created beneath Naples. In World War II many of the well shafts were enlarged and stairs added opening up the caverns for use as air raid shelters. The resulting cavities beneath the city can be divided up into several major categories:
1) Aqueducts 2) Rainwater cisterns and reservoirs 3) Caverns left from quarrying of tuffo 4) Other voids from removal of sand and other types of materials 5) Interconnecting tunnels and passageways 6) Places of worship
Our English translator for Napoliunderground, Larry Ray, has more fascinating history of the Naples "Sottosuolo" in English and several great photos on his website at: http://www.larryray.com/naples history.htm He invites you to stop by for a visit if you would like.
Please take a moment to register and become a NUg Member and gain full access to our whole web site. On the English version Home Page, under the "LOGIN" column click "Create an Account" and in a minute you will be a new NUg member and when you sign in you will be recognized and welcomed.
We are a work in progress and our pages in English are done by volunteers. If you can help with translations we would really appreciate it. Just E-mail us at
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This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You will need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information on helping us in English.
Translated by Larry Ray
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