History
The tunnel was built during the reign of Augustus connecting Neapolis (ancient Naples) to Pozzuoli and Baiae. The tunnel is over 700 meters in length and between 4 to 6 meters wide. The height varies from 7 to 30 meters. Until the beginning of 20th century the tunnel could be used to travel from Naples to Baiae. Unfortunately, the tunnel is now closed for renovations as parts are blocked by collapses that happened during the 1920s.
Virgil was the object of literary admiration and veneration before his death. In the following centuries his name became associated with miraculous powers and his tomb the object of pilgrimages and pagan veneration. The poet himself was reputed to have created the cave with the fierce power of his intense gaze.
At the time of Virgil's death, a large bay-tree was growing near the entrance. According to the legend, it died when Dante died, and Petrarch planted a new one. Because visitors took branches as souvenirs the new tree died too.
Read more about this topic: Virgil's Tomb
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“America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
—Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929)
“History ... is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
But what experience and history teach is this—that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Perhaps universal history is the history of the diverse intonation of some metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)