Italy's sunken Roman city rises again from sea; visitors to explore via glass-bottomed boats, snorkelling
Located in the Bay of Cartaromana, the ruins lie just beneath the surface. Visitors can now explore the site via glass-bottomed boat rides or snorkelling excursions that reveal ancient quays, Roman artefacts, and stone structures preserved on the sea floor.
'It was believed that the Romans never built a city on Ischia,' archaeologist Dr Alessandra Benini told the BBC. 'It was the opposite.'
The eruption that likely destroyed Aenaria is estimated to have occurred around 180 AD, but unlike the well-documented destruction of Pompeii in 79 AD, Aenaria's story remained unwritten. No contemporary Roman records describe the event, and for centuries, the site was buried under volcanic sediment.
Initial clues emerged in the 1970s, when divers found fragments of pottery and lead ingots off Ischia's coast. However, early efforts led by Don Pietro Monti and archaeologist Giorgio Buchner failed to uncover the city. The trail went cold until 2011, when a group of local sailors and history enthusiasts resumed investigations, eventually unearthing the remains of a massive Roman quay buried under two metres of seabed.
Subsequent discoveries have included amphorae, mosaics, coins, the remains of seaside villas, and even a wooden Roman ship.
Long believed to be a Greek domain, Ischia was famed for its thermal springs and early Greek colonisation around 750 BC. Roman control followed in 322 BC, with the island renamed Aenaria, a name that appears in classical texts by Pliny the Elder and Strabo. But physical evidence of Roman settlement was scarce.
'The name was documented,' said local resident Giulio Lauro, as per BBC. 'But no one could find the place.'
It turned out the city had not disappeared. It had simply sunk. The rediscovery was driven by Lauro and a team of local tour operators, archaeologists, and volunteers who self-funded the ongoing excavation.
'We started from zero,' Lauro told the BBC. 'We were lucky to believe in it. And then to actually find it.'
Items uncovered suggest that Aenaria was not only a port but also a residential hub. Archaeologists have found mosaic tiles, oil lamps, wooden combs, fishing needles, decorated plaster, and even Roman baths.
Radiocarbon dating places the quay's construction between 75 BC and AD 30. In 2020, the discovery of a shipwreck revealed military hardware, including a bronze mooring post shaped like a swan's head and lead sling bullets, indicating Aenaria may have had a strategic role in Roman military operations, as per the BBC.
Trade evidence is equally strong. Amphorae found at the site originate from 12 production centres across the Mediterranean, including Campania and the Levant. Analysis of recovered lead traced its origin to Spain, painting a picture of a deeply interconnected Roman trade hub.
'It's likely there was also a small town nearby the port,' Benini said.
Visitors can now observe live digs during the summer months, view artefacts at a nearby exhibit, and watch a 3D video reconstruction of Aenaria, offering an immersive look at its streets, buildings, and coastline.
(With inputs from BBC)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
From K2 to Kangchenjunga: How Vittorio Sella's pioneering work changed mountain photography forever
For many years, I had looked at books, magazines, websites and blogs, searching for photographs taken by Italian Vittorio Sella. Over the course of time, these photographs became like familiar friends—and often, on seeing a mountain image on Google, I knew it was a Sella. But nothing prepared me for the enormity of the moment when I visited the exhibition, titled Vittorio Sella: Photographer in the Himalaya, which opened at Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata on 8 August. Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), in collaboration with Victoria Memorial, is showing for the first time in India a collection of 78 Sella prints from his expeditions around Kangchenjunga in 1899 and the Karakoram in 1909. To see the original Sella prints—some of the panoramas are over 10ft in length and meticulously stitched together—is truly a revelation. The stupendous details in the ridges, icefalls, glaciers and scree slopes in the images shot well over a hundred years ago is mindboggling to say the least. A pioneering mountain photographer of his generation, Sella set a benchmark in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In an era when photography was mainly confined to the realms of a studio in controlled conditions and the emphasis remained on documentation, Sella took the large-format studio equipment to the lofty heights of the Himalaya and the Karakoram, creating images that went far beyond mere documentation and are valued today for their aesthetic beauty and composition. Sella was born in the small town of Biella at the foot of the Italian Alps in 1859. The family was wealthy and his father owned a textile mill. He worked for some time in the family business before his passion for mountains and photography got the better of him. He was inspired by his uncle Quintino, who was a keen mountaineer and the founder of the Italian Alpine Club. Sella started climbing in the Alps. The story goes that one night in 1879, while attending an opera in Biella, Sella noticed a clear night sky. Dressed in his formal clothes, he rushed up the mountain to his small tent where a camera was mounted for such eventualities and took a brilliant panorama of Mont Mars. Sella started out by using the large plate 30x40cm Dallmeyer camera that he carried with him to the field. The camera itself weighed around 40 pounds and each glass negative around 2 pounds. Along with this there was a heavy tripod to support the equipment. Sella carried much of this equipment himself as he climbed up steep mountain heights. Later as technology evolved, he switched to the smaller Ross and Co. cameras around 1893 and finally towards the end of his career, he also used one of the first hand-held Kodak cameras. When Sella started out, it was the era of the wet collodion photo process—where the glass negatives had to be coated and developed on site, a daunting task. Later around 1880, the dry gelatine plate was introduced. It allowed photographers to leave their mobile darkrooms and work with higher exposure speeds and better sensitivity and process the plates back home. Many of Sella's later prints were the conventional silver gelatine ones. Sella was possibly one of the first photographers to include human figures in his mountain landscapes to provide a sense of scale, a technique which many modern photographers also follow today. Sella climbed extensively in the Alps from 1880-93. Some of his notable climbs were the first winter ascent of the Matterhorn in 1882, the first winter ascent of Mont Rosa in 1884, and the first winter traverse of Mount Blanc in 1888. He also looked further afield and made three expeditions to the Russian Caucasus in 1889, 1890 and 1896. On the first expedition, Sella and his team made an ascent of Mount Elbrus (5,642m), the highest peak in Europe. Sella photographed mountains in four continents—the Alps in Europe, Mount St Elias in North America in 1897, Ruwenzori in Africa in 1906, Kangchenjunga in Sikkim and Nepal in 1899 and K2 and the Karakoram in 1909, in Asia. It is pertinent to point out Sella's relationship with two towering personalities: the British lawyer and explorer Douglas Freshfield, who was president of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club, and the Italian nobleman, Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, who became Sella's patron. Knowing Sella's reputation as a mountain photographer, Freshfield invited Sella and his brother Erminio on a landmark expedition around Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, in 1899. In a letter to Sella, Freshfield wrote, 'Could I hope to get you to bring your equipment and experience…but I should like to see those great peaks and go around Kangchenjunga…I have thought so for 20 years…perhaps it has got too late!" The Kangchenjunga expedition encountered bad weather and extreme snowfall on many days. Sella was undaunted. He put his heavy tripod and 40-pound plate camera in the 3ft of snow on the Zemu glacier in North Sikkim and shot what was eventually recognised as one the finest photographs of Siniolchu (6,888m). Freshfield later described Siniolchu as 'the most superb triumph of mountain architecture and the most beautiful snow mountain in the world". The DAG exhibition has two prints of Siniolchu besides images of Kangchenjunga and other satellite peaks of the range. The expedition completed the circuit of the mountain crossing the high Jongsong La, around 6,045m, from Sikkim into Nepal in extremely difficult and snowy conditions. Sella's three major expeditions were with the Duke of the Abruzzi, who had a passion for mountains and the desire to climb the highest peaks in the world. The duke also wanted to document his expeditions and with this in mind, he invited Sella to accompany him to Alaska, Ruwenzori and finally to the Karakoram. In 1897, the duke along with Sella and his team summitted Mount Saint Elias in Alaska. In 1906, the duke asked Sella to accompany him to the Ruwenzori mountains in Uganda known as Mountains of the Moon. On the Uganda expedition along with the ascent of Mt Stanley, the fourth highest peak in Africa, Sella photographed the exotic vegetation, rainforests as well as the indigenous people of the region. Sella's last major expedition was to the Karakoram in 1909, at age 50, where he produced some of his finest work, including K2, Broad Peak, the Gasherbrums, Muztagh Tower and Chogolisa, all of which can be seen at the exhibition. There are some magnificent panoramas of the range from the Baltoro glacier. The climb of Chogolisa set a new altitude record of 7,498m, which remained unbroken until the British expedition to the Everest in 1922. Unfortunately, the duke was forced to turn around just 150m below the summit due to bad weather. Interestingly, Chogolisa remained unclimbed for 66 years until an Austrian expedition summitted the peak in 1975. Sella's photograph of the duke and his guides climbing the Chogolisa icefall with enormous seracs about to topple over their heads remains one of the classics of mountain photography. Sella returned to Biella in 1909 after the expedition and focused his energies on selling his prints and photographs. A large collection of his work was bought by the National Geographic Society in 1912. He was also made an honorary member of the American Alpine Club in 1938. Sella continued to climb in the Italian Alps, the Grand Paradiso ranges and in 1935, at the age of 76, he made one last attempt to climb the Matterhorn but was unsuccessful. Sella died in Biella in 1943 at the age of 84. In his memory, the Italian Alpine Club set up Rifugio Vittorio Sella, an alpine hut, in the Grand Paradiso National Park. One of the peaks in the Ruwenzori range of Africa on Mount Luigi di Savoia was also named Sella peak in his honour. In November 2019, I trekked to the Pangpema base camp of Kangchenjunga at 5,130m in Nepal, where Sella had climbed up to a grassy shelf and shot his magnificent panorama of Kangchenjunga and the glacier. In Sella's footsteps, I struggled up a steep slope trying to reach the viewpoint. The Nepal earthquake of 2015 had reduced the hillside to a jumble of rock and scree and the going was hard. As I looked out over the glacier and the base camp below to the lofty heights of Kangchenjunga on that clear autumn morning, what was most startling was the absence of snow on the glacier. In around 120 years, the snow covered glacier below Kangchenjunga had been reduced to a wasteland of rock and rubble. In these turbulent times of extreme weather patterns, glacial lake outbursts and climate change, Sella's photographs stand as testimony as to what the great glaciers and mountains of the Himalaya and Karakoram looked like many years ago. The legendary American landscape photographer Ansel Adams was a great admirer of Sella's work. In an article in the Sierra Club Bulletin in 1946, Adams says, '…we are amazed by the mood of calmness and perfection pervading all of Sella's photographs. In Sella's photographs there is no faked grandeur; rather there is understatement, caution, and truthful purpose…Sella has brought to us not only the facts and forms of far-off splendours of the world, but the essence of experience which finds a spiritual response in the inner recesses of our mind and heart." At Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata till 7 September, 10am-6pm. Closed on Mondays and public holidays. Sujoy Das is a Kolkata-based trekker, mountain photographer and co-author of Everest, Reflections on the Solukhumbu.
Indian Express
13 hours ago
- Indian Express
USSR sweatshirt, Kyiv cutlet, and protests: Scenes from Alaska, the host for a rare Trump–Putin summit
The first US-Russia summit in four years is set to be held on Friday against the backdrop of Cold War nostalgia and local protests, as US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are arriving to discuss the war in Ukraine. Trump, speaking ahead of the meeting at a Cold War-era air force base, cast the talks as 'the start of the end of the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two.' Putin, whose forces remain ascendant in Ukraine, hinted at a possible deal to limit strategic nuclear weapons, something the Kremlin hopes could open a broader dialogue with Washington beyond Ukraine, Reuters reported. Both leaders will meet at the US military's Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. Reuters reported that in Anchorage, thousands of miles from the front lines, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov drew attention by arriving in a sweatshirt emblazoned with 'USSR.' Lavrov's antics, however, were the latest in a string of Russian provocations leading up to the summit, as per The Guardian, aimed at unsettling Ukraine and its European allies. The Guardian quoted the editor-in-chief of RT, Margarita Simonyan, as saying that the Russian press corps flying to Alaska had been served chicken kyiv cutlets. Lavrov showed up in Alaska wearing a USSR sweatshirt. Very reassuring to at least 14 of Russia's neighbors. — Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) August 15, 2025 However, the Kremlin press pool was accommodated at the Alaska Airlines Center, where a large semi-open space had been divided into sections with partitions. Some journalists even improvised their own camp-style beds, while meals were provided free of charge at a nearby university campus, according to Russian reporters, Reuters said. With most hotels booked out by the influx of international journalists, the visiting reporters were housed in the local ice hockey arena — a venue once repurposed as a Covid-19 hospital — now fitted with Red Cross–donated army cots, according to The Guardian. Additionally, at least one live TV feed caught the unusual sight of a bear and a moose wandering past. Outside, the mood was far less cordial. Hundreds of Alaskans lined streets waving Ukrainian flags and holding signs calling Putin a 'war criminal.' Hanna Correa, a Ukrainian who moved to Anchorage in 2019, told the BBC: 'Putin is supposed to be in jail, and he just comes to Alaska like that. When I see so many Americans supporting Ukraine, it made me cry.' Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not invited to the talks, a decision Correa called 'pretty sad.' Protester Christopher Kelliher, a 53-year-old veteran and Alaskan native, told the BBC: 'It's gross… Putin doesn't need to be in our state, much less our country. We have an idiot in the White House that will kowtow to this guy.' Some locals voiced cautious hope. 'I understand the historical moment… I hope there will be some fruitful results,' Anchorage resident Galina Tomisser told Reuters. Fisherman Don Cressley said he backed the talks if they could end the destruction in Ukraine: 'Trump's doing an awesome job in ceasefire negotiations.' The state — whose far western edge sits just 90 kilometres from Russia's Far East — is home to Indigenous communities and was first settled by Europeans, including Russian explorers, in the 18th century. The US purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, and no Russian leader has visited since. Anchorage resident Russell Wilson told the BBC: 'If the president doesn't put the hammer down, we could be the next Ukraine.' Others were unfazed with Kelliher joking that 'everybody in Alaska owns a gun.' While Trump insists his goal is to bring Putin to the negotiating table, Ukraine and its European allies remain wary. In Kyiv, resident Konstantyn Shtanko told Reuters: 'There won't be a positive outcome… At best, it will be a frozen conflict.'
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Hindustan Times
Rude Hotels by Vir Sanghvi: Room at the top
It is one of the most famous stories in luxury hoteliering. Adrian Zecha, a former publisher who had revolutionised deluxe hotels in Asia by founding the Regent chain, decided to build a home for himself in Phuket, Thailand, after selling his Regent stake. The Amanpuri's residences-plus-hotel model has been copied all over the world A few friends joined him and they found a location outside the city to build their villas. But, as construction commenced, they realised that the area lacked the basic infrastructure required to support luxury homes. So, Zecha decided he would build a small hotel next to their homes that would provide the generators, boilers, laundry, security, etc needed to provide support services to their homes. He called the hotel Amanpuri, and by the time it opened in late 1987, a business model had emerged. Zecha and his friends sold more land around the hotel to other millionaires who built their own luxury homes. Amanpuri managed the properties and, if the millionaires so chose, they could offer their homes up for rent when they were not using them for their own vacations. Adrian Zecha built Phuket's Amanpuri in 1987 to offer support services to his friends' luxury homes. The Amanpuri experience had two consequences. The residences-plus-hotel model began to be copied all over the world. It was good for guests because they got to spend holidays by renting the homes of millionaires. It was good for the millionaires because they earned money from their vacation homes when they were not using them. And it was good for hotel developers because they made an immediate return on their investment by selling luxury residences on the hotel site. But there was also a second consequence. Zecha priced the hotel rooms in Amanpuri at such high rates that most hoteliers thought he was crazy. The hoteliers were wrong. Amanpuri became a rage and guests flocked to Phuket. Zecha had found a new niche: Super-rich travellers who were willing to pay a fortune for small, luxury hotels. Zecha got back into hoteliering full-time and created the Aman chain of exclusive, expensive hotels. He started out with many Asian locations (he is Indonesian) but expanded to such unlikely destinations as Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I did a TV show on Aman hotels at the height of Zecha's success and stayed at many of the hotels. I was struck by several things. One: The hotels were all very different and were united only by Zecha's whims, quirks and fancies. Two: Though some of the hotels had great exteriors designed by such brilliant architects as Ed Tuttle, the interiors and rooms could be sparse, boring and impractical for guests. Once you checked in, you didn't always find super-luxury experiences. And three: The food was usually disappointing. Aman has developed the Japanese restaurant Nama, and the Italian Arva in-house. Though Aman became a hugely influential chain in concept terms, it struggled financially and many of the quirkier hotels lost money. At one stage, aggressive investors removed Zecha. He returned only to eventually sell the company to India's DLF (which retained his management) before finally losing control completely when DLF sold it to a group of investors led by Vladislav Doronin, a Swedish citizen of Russian extraction who had made a fortune in property and trading, and had dated such glamorous figures as Naomi Campbell. Though the transition to the new regime was rocky within the old Aman team, Doronin has proved to be good for Aman. He has moved from Zecha's quirkiness to providing a solid luxury experience, stabilised the company's finances, expanded to new locations, attracted corporate investors and turned Aman, which is the preserve of a small number of wealthy guests ('Amanjunkies') into the international hotel group of choice for the global super-rich. The food is finally worth the prices the hotels charge (Arva and Nama, new, high-quality Italian and Japanese restaurant brands have been developed in-house). The managers are trained professionals, which they weren't always in the Zecha era. The newer hotels offer a consistent luxury experience. Vladislav Doronin (who once dated Naomi Campbell) now owns the chain and is shaking things up. Most important, Aman has finally succeeded in moving beyond the resorts category. The old regime screwed up with its first city hotel (now The Lodhi in Delhi; DLF held on to it when it sold Aman) and its Tokyo property was stuck in limbo until it opened, post-takeover, to win fame as one of the world's best hotels. The Aman in New York is the city's most expensive and exclusive hotel. And the Aman Nai Lert, which opened in Bangkok earlier this year, is the region's hottest hotel, winning the loyalty of top-tier guests despite charging nearly double of what The Oriental, previously Bangkok's top hotel, charges. I stayed there shortly after it opened, and everyone I met in Bangkok (mostly from the hospitality business) asked: 'Wow! Tell us what it's really like!' When a hotel evokes that level of awe, it tells you something about the esteem with which Aman is regarded. What accounts for Aman's exalted position in the hotel world? It's a hard question to answer. In the Zecha era, Aman was tapping into a premium market that other hoteliers had not addressed. But now that there is no shortage of luxury hotels with huge villas and massive private pools, wealthy guests have many other options. Probably the best way to describe why Aman is still at the top nevertheless, is that its hotels manage to create an alternate reality that is peaceful, refined and exclusive. Of course the design is outstanding (the lobby in Bangkok designed by Jean Michel Gathy is breathtaking) and the rooms are super luxurious. But it's more than that: The hotels smell of restrained elegance and good taste. Aman is less in the business of selling hotel rooms and more in the business of creating a sophisticated environment, where every detail is perfect. The super-rich think that they are different from the rest of us. Aman reminds them that they are absolutely right to feel that way. In keeping with that philosophy, Aman now has several brand extensions. In 2018 a skincare line was successfully launched. In 2020 came Aman fragrances. In 2022 a clothes line became available. A few years ago, as prices of hotel rooms skyrocketed, Aman created a new hotel brand, Janu, at a lower price point, but with the same sensibility as the flagship. It's all a long way from the original conception of Amanpuri as a place for Zecha and his friends. The world has changed. But Aman has kept pace with the changes and to its credit, it is now better than it has ever been. From HT Brunch, Aug 16, 2025 Follow us on
