The lost Roman city of Altinum, the precursor to Venice, rises again as aerial maps reveal detailed street plan




It was one of the richest cities of the Roman empire.

But when the fearsome Germanic Emperor Attila the Hun launched his attack in AD452, the inhabitants of Altinum began their great escape and fled.

The once bustling metropolis, regarded by some scholars as the forerunner of Venice, gradually sank into the ground and into obscurity.

But now, thanks to sophisticated aerial imagery, the lost city has been brought to life once again more than 1,500 years on.

From the ground, the 100-hectare site just north of Italy's Venice airport looks like nothing more than rolling fields of corn and soybeans.

e plote:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...reet-plan.html