Velia
View of the excavations and the tower at Velia
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 Shown within Italy
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| Alternate name | Hyele, Ele, Elea |
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| Location | Velia, Province of Salerno, Campania, Italy |
| Region | Magna Graecia |
| Coordinates | 40°09′39″N 15°09′18″E / 40.16083°N 15.15500°ECoordinates: 40°09′39″N 15°09′18″E / 40.16083°N 15.15500°E |
| Type | Settlement |
| History | |
| Builder | Settlers from Phocaea |
| Founded | Between 538 and 535 BC |
| Associated with | Parmenides, Zeno, Statius |
| Site notes | |
| Management | Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici di Salerno, Avellino, Benevento e Caserta |
| Website | Parco archeologico di Elea-Velia (Italian) |
| Official name | Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the Archaeological sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | iii, iv |
| Designated | 1998 (22nd session) |
| Reference no. | 842 |
| Region | Europe and North America |
Velia was the Roman name of an ancient city of Magna Graecia on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was founded by Greeks from Phocaea as Hyele (Ancient Greek: Ὑέλη) around 538–535 BC. The name later changed to Ele and then Elea (/ˈɛliə/; Ancient Greek: Ἐλέα) before it became known by its current Latin and Italian name during the Roman era. Its ruins are located in the Cilento region near the modern village Velia, which was named after the ancient city. The village is a frazione of the comune Ascea in the Province of Salerno, Campania, Italy.
The city was known for being the home of the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno of Elea, as well as the Eleatic school of which they were a part. The site of the acropolis of ancient Elea was once a promontory called Castello a Mare, meaning "castle on the sea" in Italian. It now lies inland and was renamed to Castellammare della Bruca in the Middle Ages.
The town is situated close to the Tyrrhenian coast in a hill zone nearby Marina di Casalvelino and Marina di Ascea, on a road linking Agropoli to the southern Cilentan Coast. Its population is mainly located in the plain by the sea (surrounding the southern part of the ancient ruins) and in the hill zones of Enotria, Bosco and Scifro. Velia also had a railway station on the Naples-Salerno-Reggio Calabria line, closed at the end of the 1970s.
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