Pantelleria Island


Pantelleria is a small island located in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and Africa. 106 km southwest of Sicily and 68 km from the Tunisian coast it may be reached by plane or ferry. The island belongs to Sicilian province of Trapani and has a population of a little more than 7,000 people who speak the language Pantesco, which is a dialect of Sicilian influenced by Arabic. The highest hill is Montagna Grande (836 m asl).

The island is of volcanic origin, and actually still active, but the last eruption occurred below sea level in 1891. The island has lots of volcanic activity such as hot springs and fumaroles, and there is also a soda lake named Specchio di Venere. Due to the volcanic origin the caves on the island are lava tubes, blister caves, and erosional or tectonic caves, most are rather small. The main specialty is that some of those caves have thermal springs. There are also some sea caves along the coast.




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