Paestum

Paestum ( extension within the walls of about 110 hectares ) is located just off the coast of the Gulf of Salerno, in the plain sloping gently towards the sea , to the left of the Sele , in its final stretch, just before it reaches the mouth of the river where it flows into a landscape miraculously untouched . The city, still surrounded by the entire perimeter of the walls , was founded by Greek colonists from Sybaris around 600 BC , on a large bedrock lagoon surrounded by the waters closed to the sea by a sandy strip . It was called Poseidonia and over time took on the characteristics of strong metropolis inhabited by different peoples in the shade of the beautiful temples that still stand in the center of the area, formed a perfectly integrated community . Over the monumentality of the site, of which we know aspects of urban public and private , are important in the records of figurative art and anthropological material coming from numerous cemeteries surrounding the city , the most famous of them is the one of the Diver : Pearl Museum National Archaeological where it is exposed along with the no less famous metopes Heraion on the Sele , and painted tombs of age Lucania. The archaeological area of Paestum and Museum are visited each year by about 400,000 people.