Zungri is a rupesterian village situate in Calabria near the popular coast of Tropea. Consisting of about 100 cave-dwellings carved into the rock, of various sizes and shapes, some single-cellular, others bicellular, others still on two floors, the settlement - the only one of its kind in Calabria - occupies an area of about 3000 square meters. According to scholars, it is an embryonic but effective example of cave urbanism: the housing modules are connected through internal connections that trace, with steps carved into the rock, the road system, while the water of the three springs located in the lower part of the settlement, it was collected and channeled into cisterns, wells and tanks communicating with each other and destined for different water uses. Not even rainwater was wasted, as shown by the system for channeling and collecting rainwater. The caves, circular or square in shape, have a vaulted or domed roof with a hole in the center to allow ventilation; others instead have circular or rectangular windows that overlook the road system or open onto the enchanting panorama of the valley. Inside are visible recesses in the walls, used both for the arrangement of the beds and as housing for the furnishings.
At the cave-house, inhabited until recently (they were also used during the world war as a shelter from the bombing), alternate caves used for different uses: cellars, shelters for animals, agricultural processing laboratories, silos for the conservation of cereals, processing tanks and ovens. A precious treasure that shows how man has used ingenuity to adapt to an often inaccessible nature, without distorting it.
