The necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia are widely recognized as unique and exceptional testimonies of the Etruscan civilization, and for their universal value were inscribed in 2004 on the World Heritage List. The Etruscans continue to represent one of the most fascinating, mysterious, and complex pages of the evolutionary path of the Mediterranean basin. A proud people of fighters, they achieved the highest levels in the arts and social structure. They exercised a secular hegemony especially in Lower Tuscany and Lazio long before the advent of Rome. Their great sense of devotion to and respect for the dead is corroborated by such extraordinary funerary sites as the Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia which, with their urban structure and frescoed burial chambers, represent singular and quite extraordinary evidences of the ancient Etruscan civilization.