
Paestum is a Graeco-Roman city in the Campania region of Italy, located in the north of Cilento, near the coast about 85 km SE of Naples in the province of Salerno, and belongs to the commune of Capaccio, officially also named Capaccio-Paestum. Paestum are famous for it's historic buildings, the temple and the old city.
The temple of Hera, built around 550 BC by Greek colonists, is the oldest surviving temple in Paestum. Eighteenth-century archaeologists named it "The Basilica" because they mistakenly believed it to be a Roman building.
The second temple of Hera, was built in about 450 BC. It has been in the past variously thought of as a temple dedicated to Poseidon. The temple of Athena, built in about 500 BC, and was for some time incorrectly thought to have been dedicated to Ceres.
Paestum is also renowned for its painted tombs, mainly belonging to the period of the Lucanian rule, while only one of them dates to the Greek period. It was found, on 3 June 1968, in a small necropolis some 1,5 km south of the ancient walls.
The burial monument was named Tomb of the Diver (Italian: Tomba del tuffatore) after the enigmatic scene, depicted on the covering slab, of a lonely young man diving into a stream of water.