Alcantara Gorges

Between walls of black basalt up to 25 metres high, the cold, clear water of the Alcantara river squeezes through a channel in places only two metres wide. The rock on either side is broken into thousands of columns — upright like organ pipes, splayed like a fan, curved like a harp, or stacked like a pile of logs. The Gole dell'Alcantara in eastern Sicily is one of the most striking displays of columnar basalt in the Mediterranean.

The gorge is the work of fire and water together. Lava flows from vents on the lower slopes of Mount Etna repeatedly poured into the river valley, blocking and rerouting the Alcantara. Where the molten rock met the river it cooled quickly and contracted into regular prisms, mostly five- and six-sided; in some places these columns reach 30 metres. Over thousands of years the river then cut back down through the lava, exposing the cooled flows in its walls — several of them can be seen lying one on top of another on the left bank. The main gorge, at Fondaco Motta in the commune of Motta Camastra, runs for more than 6 km, and the first stretch can be explored on foot along the riverbed. Geologists have used these columns to reconstruct the sequence of Etna's great eruptions.

The Alcantara itself is a 53-km river that rises in the Nebrodi mountains and reaches the Ionian Sea near Giardini-Naxos. Unusually for Sicily, it keeps its water through the summer, fed by rain on its upper basin and by snowmelt from Etna. Its name comes from the Arabic al-qantara, "the bridge", after a Roman bridge near its mouth; the Greeks knew it as the Akesines. Since 2001 the whole basin has been protected as the Alcantara River Park. The gorge has served as a film location, including for Matteo Garrone's Tale of Tales (2015).

Getting there

The gorge lies between Motta Camastra and Castiglione di Sicilia, about 17 km from Giarre. From the A18 Messina–Catania motorway, the Giardini-Naxos exit leads to the SS185 road, which reaches the gorge after about 12 km. The nearest airport is Catania-Fontanarossa (CTA), about 47 km away.