Pantalica: The Spectacular Honeycomb Tombs of Sicily

Hidden away in the Hyblaean Mountains of Sicily lies a prehistoric cemetery called the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica. Used during the late Bronze Age between the 13th and 7th century BC, it is a collection of cemeteries filled with thousands of tombs cut into the walls of a canyon resembling a beehive. Inhabited by various populations over the centuries, it was the center kingdom of the Sicels, one of the original Sicilian peoples. The necropolis is also situated on a place of great natural beauty with high cliffs overhanging a limestone ravine carved out over the millennia by rivers flowing in extremely narrow valleys. This makes the necropolis something of a natural fortress and highly inaccessible to reach.