Baiae, the drowned resort of Rome
Baiae on the Bay of Naples, the luxury resort of the Roman elite, sank into the sea through bradyseism, the slow rise and fall of the ground over the Campi Flegrei volcanic field.
400 CE · 40.82, 14.07 · status: official
The account
Marius, Pompey and Julius Caesar had villas there, and much of it became imperial property under Augustus; Portus Julius, a base of the western fleet, lay nearby. The ground sank in two phases, between the 3rd and 5th centuries and more strongly a century later. Divers now visit villas, mosaics and statues in a protected underwater archaeological park. Its sulphur springs and the nearby Lake Avernus, thought to be an entrance to the underworld, gave the area an uncanny name.
The sceptical view
A documented, volcanic cause; no mystery beyond the archaeology.
Connections in the atlas
- Caligula's ships of Lake Nemi
- Shicheng, the Lion City under Qiandao Lake
- Pavlopetri, the oldest drowned town
- Thonis-Heracleion found under Abu Qir Bay