The San Niklaw Cave - settlement

Abstract

The adaptation of caves as dwellings and shrines represents an ancient Mediterranean practice. Places such as Granada in Spain, Matera in Apulia, Matmata in Tunisia and Cava D’Ispica in Sicily show that “Mediterranean people have always chosen caves and grottoes, natural or excavated, as providing cool and often defensible dwellings, stores, stalls, cisterns, churches, burial places and catacombs”