Matera

Matera is a city and the capital of the Province of Matera in the region of Basilicata, in Southern Italy. With a history of continuous occupation dating back to the Palaeolithic, it is renowned for its rock-cut urban core, whose twin cliffside zones are known collectively as the Sassi.

Matera lies on the right bank of the Gravina river, whose canyon forms a geological boundary between the hill country of Basilicata to the south-west and the Murgia plateau of Apulia to the north-east. The city began as a complex of cave habitations excavated in the softer limestone on the gorge's western, Lucanian face. It took advantage of two streams which flow into the ravine from a spot near the Castello Tramontano, reducing the cliff's angle of drop and leaving a defensible narrow promontory in between.