Matera is a city and the capital of the Province of Matera in the region of Basilicata, in Southern Italy. With a history of continuous occupation dating back to the Palaeolithic, it is renowned for its rock-cut urban core, whose twin cliffside zones are known collectively as the Sassi. Matera lies on the right bank of the Gravina river, whose canyon forms a geological boundary between the hill country of Basilicata to the south-west and the Murgia plateau of Apulia to the north-east.