Necropolis Cyrenensis
About
Rock-cut tombs spread across the hillsides ringing Cyrene, one of the largest burial landscapes to survive from the Greek and Roman world, with graves ranging from the 6th century BCE through the Roman period. The Western Necropolis holds the most monumental examples, its facades carved with Doric and Ionic porticoes along a dedicated funerary road. Temple-tombs and painted chamber tombs with rock-cut sarcophagi honeycomb the surrounding cliffs. Italian archaeologists continue to uncover previously unrecorded tombs here.
What happened here
The dead are outside the walls because the law requires it, so the approach to every town is lined with them. Tombs face the road in rows, grand ones in front and simpler markers behind, all of them addressed to the passer-by. Burial clubs let ordinary people and slaves pay a monthly subscription for a place in a communal vault and a decent funeral; the alternative is a pit. Families come out on anniversaries and at the February festival, eat at the graveside, and pour wine into a pipe set into the ground. Undertakers, stonecutters and letter-cutters work nearby and compete on price. Ground is bought by the foot, and the frontage on the road costs the most.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →