Napels2025 - Harbour of Pozzuoli
www.naplesldm.com/pozzport.php
The Roman Port of Pozzuoli
Changes in the coastline of the Gulf of Naples —specifically the Bay of Pozzuoli— have come about over the centuries not so much through general changes of sea-level in the Mediterranean, but rather through the local rising and falling of the land from earthquakes and especially the minor (but cumulatively important) up-and-down jiggling shifts known as "bradisisms." The area is on top of —better, IS the top of— an active seismic cauldron that has to vent every once in a while.
Though there is considerable discussion over the extent to which the coastline has changed since the time of the Romans, it is a matter of simple (albeit underwater!) observation that there are submerged Roman buildings and port facilities in the bay off of Pozzuoli and adjacent (to the west) Baia. The movement, by the way, has not always been all in one direction; that is, since the 1980 earthquake and subsequent bradisisms, the land has actually risen, not subsided; the famous Temple of Serapis (photo, left)—which used to be submerged up to about the one-meter mark on the columns—is now totally on dry land, and the entire port had to be rebuilt in the 1980s to accommodate the drop in perceived sea-level at portside.
Napels2025 - Harbour of Pozzuoli
www.naplesldm.com/pozzport.php
The Roman Port of Pozzuoli
Changes in the coastline of the Gulf of Naples —specifically the Bay of Pozzuoli— have come about over the centuries not so much through general changes of sea-level in the Mediterranean, but rather through the local rising and falling of the land from earthquakes and especially the minor (but cumulatively important) up-and-down jiggling shifts known as "bradisisms." The area is on top of —better, IS the top of— an active seismic cauldron that has to vent every once in a while.
Though there is considerable discussion over the extent to which the coastline has changed since the time of the Romans, it is a matter of simple (albeit underwater!) observation that there are submerged Roman buildings and port facilities in the bay off of Pozzuoli and adjacent (to the west) Baia. The movement, by the way, has not always been all in one direction; that is, since the 1980 earthquake and subsequent bradisisms, the land has actually risen, not subsided; the famous Temple of Serapis (photo, left)—which used to be submerged up to about the one-meter mark on the columns—is now totally on dry land, and the entire port had to be rebuilt in the 1980s to accommodate the drop in perceived sea-level at portside.