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The Etruscan Tomb of Faggeto

[image ALT: A pit about a meter and a half deep in the woods, carpeted with dead leaves. It is bounded on the left and right by low walls of irregular stone masonry, leading to a stone structure, about the size and ship of a phone booth and entered by a pivoting stone door. It is an Etruscan tomb at Faggeto, near S. Giovanni del Pantano, Perugia province, Umbria (central Italy).]

The little tomb you see above is one of the rarest curiosities on my site, in two ways.

[image ALT: A detail of a stone pivot in a cave-like recess. It is the upper pivot of an Etruscan tomb near Faggeto, Umbria (central Italy); and it is explained in detail on the page linked.]

[ 1 page, 5 photos, map ]

First, it is very difficult to get to, and even to find, and must see a visitor maybe no more than every other year, if that. If you're tempted to try, I'll walk you thru the sequence as best I can, and show you a bit of the landscape too.

[image ALT: missingALT. It is zzz near Faggeto, Umbria (central Italy).]

[ 1 page, 9 photos ]

The structure itself is a small chamber tomb which would be quite ordinary were it not for one thing: its monolithic stone door incorporates a pair of pivots that work like hinges; and 2200 years after the tomb was built, the half-ton door opens and closes easily.

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Page updated: 6 Apr 11

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