GSA Today's “Geology Through the Lens” - Matera’s Timeless Legacy

In the February 2025 issue of the Geological Society of America’s publication "GSA Today", I had the distinct honor and privilege of showcasing my photo of the ancient and modern city of Matera with accompanying description.  Taken during a recent visit to the Southern Italian region's of Basilicata and Apulia, it's heaven on earth for geologists, anthropologists, paleontologists, historians, tourists, hikers, bikers, gastronomes, sociologists and cinephiles.  The text that accompanies the photo is a bit wordy (my forte) and condensed, but the editors only allow so many characters.

"Matera’s Timeless Legacy"

Located on a karstic plateau of the Tertiary-uplifted Apulian Carbonate Platform of Mesozoic African affinity in the Basilicata region of southern Italy (“instep of the boot”), Gravina di Matera is riddled with thousands of solution caves that, in part, constitute the city of Matera’s Sassi (the “stones”) that is perched on the edge of the gorge.  Many caves have Neolithic documentation, and those of Matera have been continually inhabited since the Paleolithic with quarried Renaissance facades over their entrances.  Following a period of extreme overcrowding, disease, poverty and national shame in the twentieth century, Matera emerged as a 1993 UNESCO World Heritage Site and first-class tourist destination.