Cerveteri attractions

Cerveteri's sights are a cemetery, a vanished city and a port.

The Banditaccia necropolis is the reason to come: 400 hectares, 10 of them open, about a thousand tombs cut from tufa, most echoing Greek architecture. The named tombs include the Regolini-Galassi, with rich gold finds from the mid-seventh century BC; the Tomba dei Capitelli and the Tomba degli Scudi e delle Sedie, both mid-sixth century; the Tomba dei Leoni dipinti of about 620 BC; and the Tomba dei Rilievi of the fourth to second centuries.

Of the ancient city itself little is known. Six temples are attested from various sources and two have been excavated, one of them of Hera; parts of the city walls are still visible, and excavation has opened a theatre.

On the coast lies Pyrgi, the main port, linked to Caere by a road about 13 kilometres long and 10 metres wide, and known for a sanctuary of monumental temples from 510 BC built by the king of Caere and dedicated to Leucothea and Ilithyia.