¬Map of Rock-Cut Sites in the Mediterranean Basin, and classification of the related hydraulic works.

Blooming of rupestrian communities is a significant phenomenon in central-southern Italy (southern Tuscany, northern Latium, Campania, Molise, Basilicata, Apulia and Sicily), and in many other countries of the Mediterranean Basin (Algeria, France, Libya, Malta, Greece, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey), as well as of Africa (Ethiopia), the Middle East (Jordan, Israel, Syria), and central Asia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan). Further, it is also present in other regions of the world, from the ancient Persia, to China, to the high valleys in the Himalaya. The speleological research in artificial cavities, which started in Italy and nowadays is widespread in many other countries, has largely contributed to acquisition of a large amount of data of great interest about the different typologies of cavities (civilian settlements, underground working places, defensive works, hermitage sites), and the structures necessary to daily life and to development of a variety of activities as well. Speleologists, by comparing the techniques used in the realization of the different works, and the related aims, have collected data about tens of thousands of underground sites excavated by man, of high historical and anthropological interest. Thanks to this work of many decades, we can today compare and analyze all these data, which in turn feed several projects, as for the case of the Map of Rock-Cut Sites in the Mediterranean Basin.