The Bay of Baiae, ten miles north of Naples, is the exotic former resort of ancient Roman senators and patricians, famed for its thermal baths. Over the generations the bay has gradually sunk beneath the sea, a victim of bradyseism. In the photograph, the original Roman shoreline would have extended one hundred meters further out into the bay (today, much of it is reclaimed by a large boat yard).
(Bradyseism is the slow vertical movement of the Earth’s surface, particularly in volcanic calderas).
Photographs (c) Essential History.
