<< Our Photo Pages >> Pantalica Rock Cut Tombs - Rock Cut Tomb in Italy in Sicily (Sicilia)
Submitted by AlexHunger on Thursday, 03 August 2006 Page Views: 8390
Multi-periodSite Name: Pantalica Rock Cut TombsCountry: Italy
NOTE: This site is 6.27 km away from the location you searched for.
Region: Sicily (Sicilia) Type: Rock Cut Tomb
Nearest Town: Siracusa Nearest Village: Pantalica
Latitude: 37.135812N Longitude: 15.016513E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Necropolis with about 5000 tombs belonging to the Siculian culture dating to between 1270 to 730 BCE.
The Sicanian where the orginal native population before the arival of Greek coloniss and later Carthaginians and Romans. The capital of the Sicanian was just above on the plateau, but this apears pretty devastated. During byzantine times, people lived in the tomb.
Home to some 5000 burial chambers of considerable archaeological interest, Pantalica is also a place of great natural beauty, a deep limestone canyon carved out over millennia by the Anapo and Calcinara rivers. The steep sides of the gorge give way to a fertile valley that supports a flourishing variety of Mediterranean flora including holm oaks, wild sage and thyme, orchids from Ophrys and Orchis genera, giant fennel (Ferula) and plane-trees. The fauna is no less impressive and you might well see foxes, porcupines, hares, kingfishers, peregrine falcons and lot of beautiful butterflies. The tombs themselves pepper the sides of the canyon and are an impressive sight. Built in two main periods between the 13th and the 8th Centuries BC, they are relatively small in size and either elliptical or rectangular in shape. There are two main entrances to the valley, one from near Sortino, and the other from Ferla. The former involves a good walk down the sides of the gorge while the latter is more of a gentle stroll along a well-beaten path. Whether you go out of archaeological interest or for the unspoilt natural beauty you will come away feeling that you’ve discovered something really special...
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