The Etruscan Necropolises
Necropolis of Banditaccia
The Necropolis of Banditaccia (UNESCO site) represents the most important and famous Etruscan cemetery area in Cerveteri, with tombs dating back to the period between VII and the III century b.C.
Its name ("banditaccia") takes origin from the fact that since the XVI century this zone was rented through public ban (in italian it was "bandita") by big landowners to the Town, with the reserve of pasture and wood gathering in favour of local population.
Public is admitted, by purchasing a ticket, to visit an area that had been systematically dug from the first years of '900 to the Thirties by Raniero Mengarelli; the enclosed aree is only a part of the whole Necropolis, extending on the tufaceous plateau between Fosso Manganello and Fosso del Marmo (fosso=ditch).
Other Necropolises
Other important archaeological attractions are: the Big Tumulus ("Grandi Tumuli"), the Tombs of the Town ("Tombe del Comune"), the Small Lake ("Laghetto") zone and "Via degli Inferi", the last being the prosecution of the homonimous main sepulchral road longitudinally crossing the Necropolis and in the past connecting the living town to the dead town.