HFF - Matera - City of Stones

The "Sassi di Matera" (Stones of Matera) are two districts (Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano) of the Italian city of Matera, (European Capital of Culture 2019) well-known for their ancient cave dwellings inhabited since the Paleolithic period. ....The Sassi originate from a prehistoric troglodyte settlement and are suspected to be among the first human settlements in Italy. There is evidence that people were living here as early as the year 7000 BC.
The Sassi are houses dug into the calcarenitic rock itself, which is characteristic of Basilicata and Apulia, locally called "tufo" although it is not volcanic tuff or tufa . The streets in some parts of the Sassi often run on top of other houses. The ancient town grew up on one slope of the ravine created by the Gravina river.....



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassi_di_Matera