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Rome's Pantheon charges for tourist entry

Rome's 2,000-year-old Pantheon started charging for entrance on July 3, with tourists paying 5 euros ($5) to see Italy's most visited cultural site.

The building, one of the city's oldest and best loved, is currently a consecrated church and part of the proceeds from ticket sales will go towards the diocese of Rome, while the rest will go to the culture ministry.

Ancient Greek altar unearthed at archaeological site in Sicily

An ancient Greek altar for family worship dating back more than 2,000 years has been found in the archaeological site of Segesta on the Italian island of Sicily, local authorities said on Friday.

Sicily's regional government said the altar was probably in use at the height of Hellenic cultural influence, just before the rise of the Roman empire in the first century BC.

Ancient Roman temple complex opens to tourists

Four temples from ancient Rome, dating back as far as the 3rd century B.C. stand smack in the middle of one of the modern city's busiest crossroads.

But until June 19, practically the only ones getting a close-up view of the temples were the cats that prowl the so-called "Sacred Area," on the edge of the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated.

Iraq unveils ancient stone tablet returned by Italy

Iraq unveiled on Sunday a 2,800-year-old stone tablet returned by Italy, as the war-ravaged country works to recover from abroad antiquities looted from its territory.

The tablet, whose text is written in cuneiform, the Babylonian alphabet, bears the insignia of Shalmaneser III, the Assyrian king who ruled the region of Nimrod, in present-day northern Iraq, from 858 to 823 BC.

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