Italian archaeologists think they've found the shrine where ancient Romans worshipped the mythical she-wolf that suckled their city's legendary founders Romulus and Remus.
The Lupercal shrine, as it is called, has been located in an unexplored area of the Palatine Hill next to the home of Rome's first emperor Augustus,
Archaeologists have found a 9m-high, 7.5mm-wide, part-natural, part-artificial cave with a ceiling covered in marble of various colours.
At the centre of the vaulted ceiling, a large white eagle was discovered whose significance is still being interpreted.
The find was formally presented by Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli and Rome Archaeological Superintendent Angelo Bottini at a news conference here Tuesday.
Rutelli hailed the find as ''stunning''.
''Rome never tires of amazing the world with its archaeological finds.
''It is incredible to think we have found a mythological place which has finally become real''.
Bettini described the hunt for the shrine.
''The first probe went down two years ago, but we didn't really know what we'd found. Subsequent studies gradually revealed how the site coincided with the content of various literary sources.
''The breakthrough came at the beginning of August when we managed to take some photos with a laser scanner through a hole in the vault caused by a rockslide which filled the cave with rubble.
''We only have images of a section of the vault.
''But we managed to push the probe down to the pavement of the shrine, enabling us to calculate the height of the structure''.
Bettini said it would take a long time to excavate the shrine because of the risk of damaging it.
''We expect the dig to be very long and difficult,'' he said.
''We will have to proceed with caution because there is a real risk of damaging the structure of the grotto''.
An expert on Ancient Rome, archaeologist Andrea Carandini, argued that Emperor Augustus deliberately built his home on the Lupercal in order to turn his residence into ''a sort of museum of the origins of Rome''.
''It's a solid working hypothesis,'' Calandrini said.
This would support historical evidence of the emperor's ''extremely complex mythological, ideological and political programme based on depicting himself as a new Romulus''.
Archaeologists have thought for years that the Lupercal shrine was somewhere on the slopes of the Palatine Hill, Rome's oldest hill and the site of the legendary quarrel in which Romulus slew his brother.
The foundation of the city traditionally dates back to that day: April 21, 753 BC.
