Pompeii pass - Cumae Archaeological area information

Book 3 day Pompeii Pass

Visitor and background information for Cumae archaeological area.

Opening hours:

The area is open seven days a week from 9 o clock in the morning until one hour before sunset - last entry will be granted two hours before sunset.

Your Pompeii pass allows full entrance to the Cumae archaeological area, and counts as a single entrance, just one of the 12 places covered by your pass.

Some history:

Cumae can make some grand claims. The first Greek colony in mainland Italy, thought to have been established 800 years BC; home to great temples to Apollo and Jupiter that preserve traces of Greeks, Samnites, Romans and early Christians; home to one of the oldest amphitheatres in Campania; oh, and the place where the Cumean alphabet, a western variant of the Greek alphabet, took shape. This last is perhaps more impressive when a trail is followed thus: Cumean alphabet adopted by the mysterious Etruscans, then the Romans, becoming the Latin alphabet (aka the Roman alphabet), the world's most used alphabet.

The importance and strength of the Cumaean Greeks grew with the centuries; they went on to found many of their own colonies and founded Neapolis (Naples today) in 470BC. Their rule ended in 421 BC when the Oscans took the city, and in time the Romans became rulers of the city.

Cumae is nowadays famous as the home of the Cumaen Sibyl, a timeless prophetess who presided over the Apollonian oracle there, and her sanctuary, the Cave of the Sibyl.

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