Selva di Malano

In the foothills of the Cimini Mountains, near the village of Bomarzo—renowned for its 16th century Renaissance garden—there is a wild woodland known as the Selva di Malano (Malano forest). The gentle sloping landscape, where wild oak forests mingle with hazelnut orchards, suddenly gives way to deep canyons and ravines, and ancient stone altars are hidden among the trees.

It was most likely the Etruscans who carved the massive volcanic rocks that were cast here from volcanic eruptions and fashioned them into these mysterious altars. A few structures stand out: the two stones known as Sasso del Predicatore (Preacher’s Stones) and the even more mysterious cubic altar, a perfectly shaped cube which defies any logical explanation.