Time Capsule: Sunken Ancient Roman City Of Baiae With All Its Streets Imperial Villas And Statues

MessageToEagle.com - Ancient sunken city of Baiae is located just 30 minutes northwest of Naples. Baiae was one of the most important cities of Ancient Rome and Roman seaside resort, overlooking the Bay of Naples. It was a place where rich Romans and emperors spent their leisure time in their luxurious villas clustered in terraces all around the bay near Naples.
A city of Baiae - named after Baios, Odysseus' helmsman - was connected to the Roman Empire’s biggest naval base, Portus Julius, home port of the western Imperial Fleet of ancient Rome.



Click on image to enlargeSubmerged remains of Emperor Claudius' nymphaeum (as found on display in the Phlegraean Fields' Archaeological Museum in the Aragonese Castle in Baia).

Over several centuries, Baiae was Naples Bay city, even more famous than Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Capri.
However, it was also city of scandals, corruptions and hedonistic temptations, according to ancient records.
A major philosophical figure of the Roman Imperial Period, Seneca, called Baiae a “resort of vice,” while Ovid, a Roman poet referred to it as a “favorable place for love-making.”
Famous for its prestigious baths and thermal springs, the ancient city of Baiae was a fashionable bathing and recreation area of the rich and famous individuals of the ancient times.
Emperors Caligula, Nero, Hadrian and Gaius Julius Caesar once owned elegant summer villas in Baiae. Cicero, a Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul and constitutionalist entertained them during Saturnalia feasts - a holiday established in honor of Saturn.


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Today Baiae - built during the time of Emperor Claudius - is not a playground of the Roman emperors anymore.
Floors of black and white mosaic attest to a long forgotten villas, remains of ancient amphorae were once held in emperors' hands - now are scattered across the ocean floor.
Baiae lies submerged in just a few feet of water, with all streets, imperial luxury villas and statues.



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Due to high amounts of volcanic activities around Baiae, over a course of 2000 years, the ground level of Baiae kept rising and falling, which ultimately led Baiae and its port to collapse into the ocean.
The underwater environment takes us back into the past allowing us to view the reconstruction of the marble statues, the main street Herclanea and the surrounding thermal bath complex.



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The first recovery of archaeological finds related to Baiae took place in the 1920s when, during the construction works pertaining to the widening of the docks at Port Venero, sculptures, architectonic elements and water systems with imperial insignias came to light.
One of Baiae's greater discoveries was a nymphaeum found in one of the sunken buildings. It belonged to Claudius (10 BC – AD 54), a Roman emperor from 41 to 54 (the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy).



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Because he was afflicted with a limp and slight deafness due to sickness at a young age, his family ostracized him and excluded him from public office until his consulship, shared with his nephew Caligula in 37.
In the 1940s, aerial photographs taken by pilot Raimondo Baucher, provided evidence of the submerged archaeological area of Portus Julius in the shallow waters directly in front of Lake Lucrine.



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Unfortunately, despite interest raised by these discoveries, the first underwater survey of Baiae did not take place until the 1960s. The surveys conducted between 1959 and 1960 contributed to the first map of the sunken city.
Interesting were also finds in the vicinity of Punta Epitaffio at a depth of approximately 6 metres; a paved road flanked with buildings and statues continuing towards the sea, remains of other Baiae's structures reaching out into the sea by means of cemented jetties, now known to have belonged to the marine quarter of the Pisonian villa.
Additionally, approximately 400 metres from the present coast, numerous concrete pillars were discovered; pillars which confirmed the location of the ancient coastline.
The programme of surveying the area was unfortunately soon interrupted due to a lack of funds.

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Giants Of Monte Prama - Mysterious Ancient Statues With Unearthly Eyes

• Sardinia
• Cagliari
• Monte Prama
• Giovanni Lilliu
• Nuragic civilization

March 23, 2014 - Shortly after the astonishing discovery these mysterious ancient statues were deliberately hidden in the basement of a museum. The outside world had little opportunity to admire the huge figures that do not resemble any ordinary humans.

Now these mysterious figures are finally on an exhibition open to the public.

In 1974, remarkable ancient stone scultpures were accidentally discovered in farmland near Monte Prama, Sardinia. These huge statues are unique in size and material and very little is known about them.

It is commonly believed that they belong to the Nuragic civilisation, which flourished on Sardinia for two millennia until the second century AD. Excavations revealed 30 gigantic stone statues, about two meters high.

The statues do not resemble ordinary humans. Instead, these mysterious ancient figures are distinguished by their unearthly eyes, which consist of two perfectly concentric circles and a very small almost invisible mouth. The giants of Monte Prama were given the name the "Kolossoi" by the archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu.

The astonishing figures were discovered at a necropolis, so one theory is that the stone warriors guarded the tombs.

However, it has also been suggested that they belonged to an as-yet undiscovered nearby temple. It's the only group of sculpted life-sized warriors ever found in Europe.

In some aspects, the figures remind of the famous Chinese terracotta warriors. However, their appearance and material differ. Compared to the terracotta warriors, the Sardinian Giants of Monte Prama are 500 years older and they are made of stone rather than pottery.

Did the stone warriors guard tombs?

The giants of Monte Prama are without doubt one of the most incredible and astonishing discoveries ever made on the Italian island of Sardinia. Yet, no research was done and there appeared to be no interest in these enigmatic 2,700-years-old ancient figures that some refer to as prehistoric cyber warriors.

Unfortunately, shortly after the discovery, the giants of Monte Prama were "abandoned" for 32 years in the museum of Cagliari. They were placed in a damp and dark placement.

It was not until recently that funds were set aside for the daunting task of reconstructing the statues, which also include representations of nuraghe, the tower-fortresses after which the Nuragic civilization is named.

The figures were not found intact. Archaeologists discovered more than 5,000 pieces, including fifteen heads and twenty-two torso at the site, and it is unknown if everything has been found. It has been a great a demanding challenge to put together the pieces. Fragmented into numerous pieces, it is believed that the fragments came from a total of forty-four statues.

"We don't know how many there were altogether. Nor do we know if they were originally set out in lines or perhaps in squares," said Alessandro Usai, the curator of the permanent exhibition, which opens on March 22, 2014 at the national archaeological museum, in Cagliari.

More than 5,000 pieces had to be put together to create the statues.

The reconstruction, which was completed in 2011, took four years. Researchers carefully cleaned the pieces and re-assembled the warriors using supports rather than trying to glue the bits together with modern plaster and stone to make them look like they did when new.

More than 5,000 pieces had to be put together to create the statues.

Twenty-five of the warriors are now intact once again and will go on display starting this summer at the Cagliari Museum in southern Sardinia.

There are three different types of fighters represented: 16 "boxers," bearing shields over their heads, six archers and six other warriors, accessorized with bows, shields, swords, chest armour and horned helmets.

Also re-assembled from the fragments are 13 models of nuraghe, massive conical stone castles built by the Nuragic culture.

Usai said 28 of the works would go on show in Cagliari, while another 10 would be displayed in Cabras, where it is hoped the Giants will help promote tourism.

Usai pointed out that the three-dimensional digital representations of the missing statues would be created at each site, "so that the two exhibitions will be complementary".

The giants of Monte Prama have been neglected for too long and it is most important that people are now finally allowed to see this valuable archaeological discovery. One cannot help wondering what remarkable stories these enigmatic beings with the round eyes would tell us if they could speak...

Sources and more information:

• Gun-Britt Lund added a discussion to the group Ancient Civilizations, Technologies Lost to Modern Day Earth

MessageToEagle.com - Shortly after the astonishing discovery these mysterious ancient statues were deliberately hidden in the basement of a museum. world had little opportunity to admire the huge figures that do not resemble any ordinary humans. Now these mysterious figures are finally on an exhibition open to the public.

• Giant steps: mysterious Sardinian sculptures to go on display

The Giants of Monte Prama, inscrutable avatars of a lost civilisation, see the light after years of reconstruction work Some of the most mysterious statues from antiquity are finally to go on permanent display this week - 40 years after they were discovered by a ploughman on the Italian island of Sardinia.

• Monte Prama Giants

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