Sassi di Matera

The Sassi of Matera are among the oldest continuously inhabited human settlements on Earth, with cave dwellings carved into the soft limestone ravine going back some 9,000 years to the Paleolithic. For millennia families lived in these grottoes with their animals. But by the mid-20th century they had become a byword for extreme poverty—Carlo Levi's book exposed appalling conditions, malaria, and infant mortality, and in 1952 the Italian government forcibly relocated some 15,000 residents, branding the Sassi 'the shame of Italy.' Left empty and derelict for decades, they were revived from the 1980s and made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. Their timeless, biblical appearance has made them a favourite film set, notably for 'The Passion of the Christ.'