It was the first rocky Etruscan necropolis to be discovered and made known in the world of culture: It was 1817. It thickens along the rocks that point out the Freddano valley and the sides of a small valley positioned behind it. The sight of these scattered tombs in the rock, distributed with two or even three on top of one another is truly suggestive and regards a greater concentration of monumental tombs than other rocky necropoli.
There is little evidence regarding the archaic period (VI cent. B.C.). The necropolis had its exploit towards the end of the IV and II cent. B.C. The predominant cubic form was used on simple facades or on a more complicated canonical model made up of three superimposed elements: the facade, the under facade, the actual burial chamber. All of the facades are characteristic of the sequence of classical mouldings, but most of all for the suggestiveness it creates in the portrayal of La Finta Porta, the door of Beyond, often outlined with a cord, which is also repeated in the under facade area. There are often Etruscan inscriptions on fasces identifying the tomb and its owners. The hypogean burial vaults are modest and unadorned, mainly having untouched low benches between which there are numerous ditches by the sides of the main corridor. There are plenty of tombs with sarcophaguses. Among the most famous tombs there is: the Orioli tomb that gets its name from the Viterbese archeologist who discovered this area first. The facade is well constructed and so is the great burial room with over sixty depositions successors over the generations from 250 to 150 B.C. The others are those of the Tetnie with an inscription and remains of a side stair case which led to the upper part of the cube and the nearby tomb of Urinates Salvies. The most magnificent of tombs is the Great One with a facade, inferior area with three openings and a deep entrance hall (recast over the centuries) to the great burial area. Out of the forty saracophaguses found here, fourteen sarcophaguses are still preserved here. Some are open and others are not. All of the tombs show in a different way a kind of recycling that was carried out by farmers and shepherds that lived in the area throughout the centuries.
Facing the necropolis high upon the rocks, is the urban centre marked by three successive valleys, and a well preserved square keep of the medieval fortifications at the top.