More than 2,000 years ago, there was a city in the Roman Empire where the rich and powerful went to carry out their illicit affairs. Powerful statesmen built luxurious villas on the beach and the ultra-wealthy took weekend trips to party. Baia was the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire, and poets, generals and everyone in between used it to indulge in their wildest fantasies. The city has mineral waters and a mild climate, which first attracted Rome’s nobility to the city in the latter half of the 2nd Century BC. Calderas — which were revered by the ancient Greeks and Romans as entrances to the underworld — also pockmark the region. The lava and steam also helped manufacture a number of technological advances, like the local invention of waterproof cement, spurred on by construction of airy domes and marbled facades, as well as private fish ponds and lavish bathhouses, writes BBC. But the volcanic activity in the area also led to the city’s downfall. The gradual rise and fall of the Earth’s surface, caused by hydrothermal and seismic activity, eventually caused the city to sink into a watery grave over the course of several centuries. It remains there today. Divers, historians and photographers have captured submerged rotundas and porticos, including the famed Temple of Venus (a thermal sauna). These discoveries provided clues to Rome’s outrageous debauchery.
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