The Hills Leucogèe, called (a little pretentiously) also Mounts Leucogei, stretched eastward from the Solfatara, and were surrounded by the Solfatara ant the Mounts Olibano, Ruspino, Spina, Dolce, St. Angelo and Astroni.

The toponym Leucogeo means white land and it comes from a kind of white clay in which this territory has always been very rich since ancient times.

Pliny the Eldest said that the Solfatara was rich not only in sulphur but also in a particular kind of dirt which was used for the preparation of the rock-alum so that, already in that period, a zone of the crater was called the Allumiera.

Dubois writes that both the Solfatara and the surrounding hills (the Leucogei) were famous also for their particular quality of white clay, which contains calcium sulphate and allows, once it is pulverized and mixed with spelt, to obtain a great "alica", the one which for the Romans was a spelt of good quality and with which it was produced a palatable drink. 

From Leucogei hills it was drawn also a famous whitewash, a colour which once was used a lot to dye.

All the scholars denominated indistinctly these prominences both Leucogei Hills and Mounts of the Alum.

Anciently the mines of sulphur of the Leucogei belonged to Naples, but under Augustus they passed to Capua against an indemnity to the Neapolitans of twenty thousand sestertii pro year.

Later on the southern territories of Capua, included the Solfatara and Pianura, belonged to Pozzuoli; then Pianura returned to Naples, which kept always the possession of the Leucogei Hills.

professor Alessandro GIULIANI