Just a few kilometers from Calascibetta – a small town 900 meters above sea level, at the heart of Sicily – people settled in a womb carved out of stone. The hamlet is known as "Byzantine Village", and is formed of tunnels and large spaces dug in sandstone in different periods from prehistory to the Middle Ages, passing through the Greek and Roman Ages as well as Late Antiquity.

The stratified complexes were last altered in the medieval period, between the end of Byzantine rule in 827 AD and the subsequent Arab presence on the island – when the underground dwellings were primarily used as strongholds.

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Source: http://www.italianways.com/