Via cava, Sovana

The Vie Cave, also known in Italian as Cavoni, is a road network in southern Europe, found in Spain, Italy, Turkey and as far east as Jordan. In Italy they partly link an Etruscan necropolis and several settlements in the area between Sovana, Sorano and Pitigliano. They consist mainly of trenches of variable width and length, excavated as nearly vertical cliffs in different types of bedrock, sometimes over sixty feet high, possibly serving as a defense system against invaders, wild animals or forces of nature. Although often dated as being carved by pre-Roman civilisations in the first or second millennium BC, the builders and purpose of the road system are largely unclear, and there are indications that they are much older than assumed. ()