The outside of the Blue Grotto

The inside of the Blue Grotto

The Blue Grotto (Grotta Azzurra) is a noted sea cave on the coast of the Italian island of Capri. Download high resolution version (1280x960, 269 KB) Description: Blue Grotto in Capri, view from the outside Photographer: Arnaud Gaillard, 2003 Source: French Wikipedia: fr:Image:Grotta azzurra2 ag1. ... Download high resolution version (1280x960, 269 KB) Description: Blue Grotto in Capri, view from the outside Photographer: Arnaud Gaillard, 2003 Source: French Wikipedia: fr:Image:Grotta azzurra2 ag1. ... Download high resolution version (1280x960, 107 KB) Description: Blue Grotto in Capri, view from the inside Photographer: Arnaud Gaillard, 2003 Source: French Wikipedia: fr:Image:Grotta azzurra1 ag1. ... Download high resolution version (1280x960, 107 KB) Description: Blue Grotto in Capri, view from the inside Photographer: Arnaud Gaillard, 2003 Source: French Wikipedia: fr:Image:Grotta azzurra1 ag1. ... Inside Cave of the Mounds. ... Overlooking Capri harbor from the rotunda in Villa San Michele. ...

The grotto has a partially submerged opening into the sea, as do other grottoes into the island. Roman emperors with villas on Capri reportedly used the Blue Grotto as a private bath. In modern times, it has become a popular tourist attraction, with visitors touring it by boat. A Grotto (Italian grotta), when it is not an artificial garden feature, is a cave, small or quite large, usually near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide. ... The Roman Empire was a phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by an autocratic form of government. ... A tourist attraction is a place where tourists, foreign and domestic, normally visit. ...

Depending upon the tide and the size of the swells pounding the entrance to the grotto, the guides will have passengers lie down while they pull the boat and sightseers into the grotto with a chain permanently attached to the cave entrance. The tide is the cyclic rising and falling of Earths ocean surface caused by the tidal forces of the Moon and the Sun acting on the Earth. ...

Inside the grotto the sea seems to be lit from underwater. It is a magnificent fluorescent blue colour, hence its name. This is due to another opening to the grotto, completely submerged, and the limestone bottom. It allows in sunlight to truly light the water from below. The underground passages leading to the grotto are partially sealed and supposedly once were connected to catacombs of Roman tombs. Fluorescence induced by exposure to ultraviolet light in vials containing various sized Cadmium selenide (CdSe) quantum dots. ... Catacombs Paris Catacombs Rome - entrance Catacombs Rome - entrance (detail) The original catacombs are a network of underground burial galleries near San Sebastiano fuori le mura, in Rome. ... A tomb is a small building (or vault) for the remains of the dead, with walls, a roof, and (if it is to be used for more than one corpse) a door. ...

See also

• List of caves

The following is a partial list of caves. ...

External links

• Tourist information on the Blue Grotto
• Blue Grotto photographs
• Blue Grotto information
• Blue Grotto history
• Sea Caves page on The Virtual Cave