Vulci

Vulci or Volci is an Etruscan city (in Etruscan, Velch or Velx, depending on the romanization used) in the Province of Viterbo, north to Rome, Italy.

The Vulci were a tribe or people as well as a city. They were one of the legendary twelve peoples of Etruscan civilization, who formed into the Etruscan League, a confederacy of self-interest. This league splintered apart when opposed by the central government of the Roman Republic, and the Etruscans were soon assimilated. Vulci was abandoned.

Geography

Velch was located near the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea about 80 km northwest of Rome, on the Fiora River, between Montalto di Castro and Canino. The site is not currently inhabited. The cemeteries and ruins of the city remain.

The circuit of the walls measures about 6.5 km, and scanty traces of them and of Roman buildings within them still exist. The Ponte della Badia over the Fiora, a bridge with a main arch of 20 m span, 30 m above the stream, is also Roman. An aqueduct passes over it.

The former wealth of the town is mainly proved by the discoveries made in its extensive necropolis from 1828 onwards - Greek vases, bronzes and other remains - many of which are now in the Vatican. By 1856 over 15,000 tombs had, it was calculated, been opened. These were entirely subterranean, and little is now to be seen on the site but a great tumulus, the Cuccumella, and a few smaller ones. Many of the tombs date from the 8th century BC.