Roca Vecchia or Rocavecchia is a coastal town in Salento, a marina in Melendugno, in the province of Lecce. It overlooks the Adriatic Sea and is located between San Foca and Torre dell’Orso. Site of important archaeological excavations, it is a major tourist destination during the summer. Highlights include the 16th-century watchtower, the ruins of the castle overlooking the sea, the 17th-century sanctuary of the Madonna di Roca, and the two Posia caves (from the Greek, “freshwater spring”), better known as the Poesia caves. The latter, in particular, located about 60 meters apart, are karst caves whose roofs have collapsed; seawater reaches each cave through a canal accessible by swimming or by small boat. The larger of the two has a roughly elliptical layout with axes of approximately 30 and 18 meters and is about thirty meters from the open sea. Poesia Piccola, on the other hand, has axes of approximately 15 and 9 meters and is separated from the open sea by about seventy meters as the crow flies. Its considerable archaeological importance is linked to the discovery in 1983, thanks to archaeologist Cosimo Pagliara, of Messapian (as well as Latin and Greek) inscriptions on its walls, from which it was possible to establish that the cave was an ancient place of worship of the god Taotor (also known as Tator, Teotor, or Tootor). To the north of the archaeological area lies the currently inhabited center (22 residents in 2001), also known as Roca li Posti, frequented by summer vacationers. Along the road connecting Torre dell’Orso to Melendugno lies the old, uninhabited village of Roca Nuova, with a fortified farmhouse currently under restoration. This village arose around 1480, when the population of Roca Vecchia fled Turkish raids.