Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica
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How it came to be
At Pantalica in southeast Sicily, people lived from about 1250 to 650 BC and cut thousands of tombs into the limestone cliffs. The archaeologist Paolo Orsi excavated the site between 1895 and 1910.
In 733 BC Corinthians led by Archias landed on Ortygia and founded Syracuse. Its 5th-century BC Temple of Athena later became a church and was rebuilt as a Baroque cathedral in the late 17th century. Cicero called Syracuse the greatest Greek city.
Roman troops under Marcellus took the city in 212 BC, and Archimedes was killed in the fighting. Arabs captured it in 878 and Normans in 1085, and after the 1693 earthquake it was rebuilt in Baroque style.
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