Pertosa
Exploring the Pertosa-Auletta Caves
If you're in the mood to explore a fascinating location, the Pertosa-Auletta caves are the perfect place for you. Situated in the municipality of Pertosa, this complex of tourist caves is located underground in the nearby municipalities of Auletta and Polla, 263 meters above sea level, along the left bank of the Tanagro river.
Morphology
The Pertosa-Auletta caves are very extensive, making complete mapping difficult. The sequence of cave cavities carves out the northern part of the Alburni mountain range, and it is believed that their genesis and development are due to tectonic phenomena and the oscillation of the groundwater table. It takes limestone 100 years to grow one centimeter.
Waters
The Pertosa-Auletta caves are one of the few non-marine caves crossed by a navigable waterway by boat. The river, called Negro, gives these caves a unique feature. The origin of the waters is now widely believed to be connected to one or more points of emergence of the groundwater table present in the Alburni massif. The springs pump about 600-700 liters of water per second.
Paleontology
The Pertosa-Auletta caves are also interesting from a paleontological point of view. The artifacts recovered from its atrium by Paolo Carucci, who first explored them for scientific purposes between 1896 and 1898, prove that the cavity was inhabited around the middle Bronze Age. Furthermore, due to the number of vessels and jars used as milk-stamps and typical utensils of that era, it is assumed that the inhabitants were mostly shepherds who lived on stilts. These artifacts are now found in the Luigi Pigorini National Prehistoric Ethnographic Museum, the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, and the Provincial Archaeological Museum (Salerno).
Tourism
The Pertosa-Auletta caves have over 50,000 visitors per year and have been open to tourists since 1932. The first segment is visited with a special boat towed by a steel cable that serves to reach the rest of the pedestrian route.
If you want to have a unique experience, the Pertosa-Auletta caves currently host the itinerant show "Ulysses: Journey to the Underworld" in a "boat theater" form, devised and directed by Francescoantonio Nappi and produced by Il Demiurgo. The show stages Ulysses' descent into the underworld in search of the seer Tiresias, winding inside the path of nature perfect for being a backdrop to Hellenic afterlife and telling the encounter of the Greek hero with the ghosts of his history.
Until a few years ago, the Pertosa-Auletta caves also hosted "Dante's Inferno in the Caves". The audience, divided into groups of 30/35 units, was entrusted to a "Dante" and accompanied by him, crossed the ten circles of Hell, imagined by the Supreme Poet, and met the character or characters that most characterized him.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the Pertosa-Auletta caves are a complex of karst caves of tourist relevance of great interest for those who love adventure and discovery. The caves represent a place of great interest both from a paleontological and naturalistic point of view since they host a varied fauna and, finally, represent an ideal entertainment option for tourism. Thanks to the itinerant shows hosted inside the caves, tourists can experience a unique and unforgettable experience.
