• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 618 4351
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Italy’s Upside-Down Fig Tree Hangs From The Roof Of An Ancient Ruin

February 4, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

This article first appeared in Issue 1 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. 

In Naples, Italy, visitors to the ruins of Baiae which sit within the modern city of Bacoli will find a botanical take on Stranger Things’ The Upside Down. Here, from the ceiling of a cave in the Parco Archeologico delle Terme di Baia, a fig tree has grown the wrong way up. Exactly how the gravity-defying tree came to be there has botanists stumped, but its unlikely placement doesn’t seem to be slowing it down as it continues to grow (albeit, downwards) and bear fruit.

Advertisement
upside down tree

The upside-down fig tree can be viewed by visitors to the Parco Archeologico delle Terme di Baia. Image credit: Lucamato/Shutterstock.com

In its heyday, the ancient Roman city of Baiae was a lively and fashionable resort for the ruling class. Now partially underwater, the vast undersea archaeological park is described by archaeologists as having once been the Monte Carlo of the ancient Roman era where emperors such as Augustus, Caesar and Nero had homes.

A hive of activity, Baiae was also – to its detriment – actively volcanic. Over several centuries, undulations of the Earth’s crust in the region triggered hydrothermal and seismic activity which saw much of the city slip beneath the shoreline.

It was not to be lost, however, thanks to a pilot who noticed that something unusual was going on beneath the waves just off the coast of Naples back in the 1940s. Though photos taken by the pilot appeared to show structures in the ocean, it would be two decades before researchers voyaged in submarines to get a closer look at what was going on.

While our famous upside-down fig tree can be viewed among the above-ground Roman ruins at the Parco Archeologico delle Terme di Baia, visitors can look into the sunken city, too, with glass-bottom boat tours which drift above the ancient archaeological remains.

How to get there

Naples International Airport is the closest to the ancient Roman era archaeological remains. Once in Bacoli, the upside-down fig tree can be found opposite the Temple of Mercury in the Parco Archeologico delle Terme di Baia.

CURIOUS is a digital magazine from IFLScience. Each month it features interviews, experts, deep dives, fun facts, news, book excerpts, and much more. Issue 7 is OUT NOW, or subscribe to get it delivered to your inbox.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. ‘The Wire’ actor Michael K. Williams found dead in apartment -NY Post
  2. Defiant junta rejects pressure to let Conde leave Guinea
  3. China’s August exports to North Korea up for third month
  4. Compassion not barbed wire should greet migrants, Nobel winner Gurnah says

Source Link: Italy’s Upside-Down Fig Tree Hangs From The Roof Of An Ancient Ruin

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Misophonia, The Hatred Of Specific Noises, Is Way More Common Than We Thought
  • The Entomologist Who Grew Botfly Larvae In His Arm, And Filmed It
  • Does Eating A Fig Always Involve Eating Dead Wasps? Yes And No
  • Google And Bing’s AI Chatbots Appear To Be Citing Each Other’s Lies
  • The Multiverse: How We’re Tackling The Challenges Facing The Theory
  • China Plans World’s Largest “Ghost Particle” Detector 1 Kilometer Under The Ocean
  • Volunteers Are Transcribing The Notebooks Of Scientist Who Inspired Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
  • Massive Hole In Sun’s Atmosphere Cracked Open And Auroras Are Coming
  • Abandoned and Unloved, A Stone Giant Lies On The Island Of Naxos
  • The Largest Silver Nugget Ever Found Weighed More Than An American Bison
  • How Ancient Greek Philosophers And Mythology Saw The End Of The World
  • A Colossal Ecosystem Teeming With Life Is Below Earth’s Surface
  • Ancient 3,500-Year-Old Bronze Hand Is A Mystery To Archaeologists
  • The “Obesity Paradox” Doesn’t Exist
  • Galaxy Gets Reclassified Now Its Supermassive Black Hole Is Shooting Straight At Us
  • Why Is Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic Spring Rainbow-Colored?
  • Botox Injections In Forehead Can Change How Brains Process Emotions
  • The Illuminati Conspiracy Was Rekindled By A Bizarre Hippie Prank
  • Klerksdorp Spheres: Strange Spheres Found In 3 Billion-Year-Old Rock
  • JP Morgan Bought Nickel Supposedly Worth $1.3 Million. It Was Actually Just Rocks
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 618 4351
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2023 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version