The most terrifying and dangerous of all ancient rituals for foretelling the future was undertaken by means of the descent into Hell. This took place at the Oracle of the Dead, at Baia, near Naples in southern Italy. It was not just a poetical or mythological allegory: it actually happened.
    During the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus, in the last decades BC, the underground Oracle of the Dead was closely packed with soil and rubble and sealed so that it could never be used again. A rough calculation shows that at least 30,000 man-journeys were required to carry the soil into the tunnels to block many of them so thoroughly. What was it that the Romans feared? Clearly they feared the infernal powers and the terrifying things which had once gone on in the Oracle.
    The Roman poet Vergil lived in the vicinity, and he seems to have entered the Oracle before it was sealed off, and he probably knew some of the priestly staff. His descriptions of the descent into Hell in his great poem the Aeneid (Book Six) are very precise and match details of the underground complex at Baia.
    In 63 AD, the entire area of Baia was destroyed by an earthquake associated with nearby Mount Vesuvius, and the entrance to the Oracle was obliterated by mounds of Roman rubble. It remained entirely lost until 1962, when a retired Englishman named Robert Paget, aged 72, discovered it when he was making amateur archaeological searches of tunnels in the area. But the Italian authorities, claiming it was dangerous, sealed it up once more, and until 2001, none of the current authorities had ever entered the tunnels of the Oracle.
    It was in 2001 that, after twenty years of requesting it, I was finally granted permission to enter the Oracle - if I first signed a waiver that the authorities were not responsible for my injury or death. They removed the stones they had previously put there to block the entrance, warned me that the tunnels were full of poison gas, and left me to my fate. I chose to bring my friend Michael Baigent with me, and we and our wives entered the Oracle with great trepidation. We soon threw away our gas masks because we discovered that the fear of poison gas was groundless: there was none at all, merely a shortage of air deep in the interior. We were accompanied part of the way by one Italian archaeologist and two workmen who set up a generator and cables to bring light to the initial and middle portions of the Oracle, although their hundreds of feet of electric cable proved highly inadequate in the end, as the Oracle extends deep into the solid rock for more than a fifth of a mile.
    Entering this bizarre and unique place, which is so wonderfully preserved, took us far back into time. The Oracle is certainly at least 2500 years old, but more probably 3000 or even 3500, as it is mentioned in the Odyssey of Homer. In fact, Baia itself is named after Baius, a companion of Odysseus. Since the date of the Odyssey precedes the earliest Greek city in Italy (nearby Cuma), it may well be the case that the Oracle was not constructed by the Greeks (who later certainly used it). It may have been built by the Minoans from Crete, as it shows a high degree of engineering precision in its construction and could never have been built by ‘locals’ who did not possess superior engineering and surveying skills.

Inside the Tunnels

It appears to be astronomically oriented: the underground sanctuary is oriented towards the sunset of the summer solstice and the entrance tunnel runs absolutely straight, east to west, without deviation, for hundreds of feet, its cliff-side entrance facing sunrise on the same day. But most astonishing is the inclusion of an underground artificial river in the Oracle complex, one which we call the River Styx - of which it was a ‘mockup’. It is about 150 feet long and has a landing stage at either end, and artificial underwater inlets for the water supply leading to an unknown source. How this could possibly be constructed is a baffling mystery. How would the builders of the tunnel have known the water was there? Our only hope of solving this seems to be to excavate a lower layer of tunnels at the Oracle which I believe I have discovered, but could not enter. They may lead to the water source. But one must always keep in mind that the Oracle complex is 140 feet below the surface of the earth, though entered from the base of a cliff at the side.
    The atmosphere inside this strange place was eerie but peaceful. One did not feel goblins at one’s elbow, but rather a sense of timelessness. Although it would at one time have been a site of sheer terror, today the terror has all gone, and all that remained for us was the fear of the unknown hazards we might encounter. Certainly it is no place for claustrophobes. The tunnels are too narrow for anyone to pass, and I even had to twist slightly because my shoulders rubbed against the walls. But for some reason the tunnels which so conspicuously lack width often have much more height than is needed, culminating in an elegant arched roof.
    One possible reason for the height of the tunnels is the use of torches and hoods. Although there are more than 500 lamp niches carved into the walls for light, torches would also have been carried. And we believe that behind the clients who entered the Oracle were processions of priests in pointed hoods with eye-slits, looking like members of the Ku Klux Klan. It clearly would not have done to have them rubbing their pointed hoods along a low ceiling. The procession was led by the Sibyl of Cuma wearing a scarlet cloak. There is good reason to believe that baying hounds of Hell would fill the corridors with terrifying howls, and we found places for the hounds to sit, just as at nearby Cuma we found tetherings carved out of the rock on either side of the Sibyl’s oracle chamber for hounds to be tied. In fact, Cerberus, the Hound of Hell, was portrayed on coins minted at Cuma.
    In ancient times, after the payment of vast sums, selected clients were allowed to descend into Hell (which most of them must have believed was real) and been rowed in a coracle along the lengthy River Styx, disembarking to go up some stairs into the Inner Sanctum where a necromantic séance would have been staged to enable them to consult the spirits of the dead. Since we know the clients were drugged beforehand by various potions and lotions of powerful drug plants such as henbane, hellebore, and belladonna, they would have been highly suggestible.

An Initiation Centre?

It is possible that this underground site doubled as an initiation centre when it was not being used for necromancy, especially as there is some archaeological evidence recovered from the southern Italian tomb of an Orphic initiate that there were mysterious ‘ceremonies carried out underground’ connected with the ancient mystery cult of Orphism. This evidence occurs in a text inscribed on a gold tablet buried with the initiate. The Orphics were Greeks who rejected the state religion of the Olympian gods and opted for a more personal religion of a mystical nature. They were named after Orpheus, who of course made a famous Descent into Hell, where he lost his wife Eurydice, - a possible echo of the Baian Oracle. Both Michael and I were fortunate still to have our wives with us when we left. Perhaps this is because I left a bundle of myrtle sprigs in an offering niche to the underground goddess Persephone just outside the Inner Sanctuary, which is currently still filled with soil and blocked with Roman bricks.
    We hope that this archaeological site, which should really be declared a World Heritage Site for its outstanding state of preservation, size and importance, can be cleared of soil and rubble and be excavated in the manner which is so urgently needed. But it can never be open to tourists, because it is impossible for anyone to pass in the long corridors extending for hundreds of feet. However, I am pleased to have been able to make the exploration and become the first person living to enter the place. Between us, Michael Baigent and I have made full photographic coverage of the site, even though it often meant crawling for long distances in spaces only 18 inches high, owing to the Roman blockages. One day, we hope that it will be possible to walk upright throughout the whole site, and that the original air circulation will be restored by breaking open some Roman obstructions, so that people exploring the place will not be threatened with passing out for lack of oxygen, as we were. And if they pass out from terror, that is another thing, and we can do nothing to help them there.

Robert Temple has a degree in Sanskrit and Oriental Studies, is a visiting professor at universities in the United States and China and the author of ten books. The full story of the Oracle and tunnels of Baia, along with other ancient Oracle sites, is in his recent book, Netherworld. See the review on p.56.