Baiae and Portus Julius, Italy
A submerged pillar of Portus Julius.
Baiae was an ancient Roman town overlooking the Gulf of Naples, and, according to the BBC, it has been called the “Las Vegas of the Roman Empire,” a place where rich Romans and emperors whiled away their time in luxurious villas with heated spas and decadent pools.
Baiae once served as a sort of summer getaway that treated Cicero, Virgil, Pliny, and some of the greatest Roman emperors alike. It was where Claudius built his Nymphaeum, his monument to the nymphs, and was where his wife, Agrippina, plotted his death.
Wikimedia CommonsThe submerged Nyphaeum.
But the Roman land of decadence and excess wasn’t meant to last. In time, great volcanic and seismic activity splintered the city, pulling its lower region into the sea along with all of its luxuries and pleasure palaces.
With it went the Roman Empire’s biggest naval base: Portus Julius, the place that once housed the arsenal of the great Roman fleet. Like the pleasure palaces of Baiae, it was pulled under the sea and lost to time.
But although nature may have hidden them from our eyes, Claudius’ Nymphaeum still remains.
Today, anyone with scuba gear and a sense of adventure can still the marble statues, cobbled streets, and thermal baths built for an emperor, now buried under the sea
