Pantalica is a naturalistic-archeological site in the province of Syracuse and it is part of the UNESCO’s world heritage sites. It is located on a plateau, surrounded by canyons formed over the millennia by two rivers, Anapo and Calcinara.
At the bottom of the valley, crystal waters gush from the rock to disappear after few hundred meters.
This is a typical karst water circulation of mounts Iblei that during thousands of years it has given origin to hollows, water springs and natural caves , such as the Grotta dei Pipistrelli (the Cave of bats), a big cave that hosts inside it a colony of bats, or the Grotta del Tunnel, a cave that in the past would swallow the water of the river to let it reappear down below.
Through a suggestive landscape it is possible to admire the impressive necropolis made of more than 5000 tombs with artificial caves carved into the rock. The name of the site seems to derive from the greek, which means “ cave” and Pantalica stands for the biggest necropolis and the most important site of the first inhabitants of the Mediterranean area.