The Alcantara Gorges - A very taunting place to visit next summer!

The Alcantara Gorges, also known as "Gole di Larderia", are located in the Alcantara Valley in SIcily where the mountain range of Peloritani ends between the towns of Castiglione di Sicilia and Motta Camastra.

They are high gorges up to 25 meters and wide 2 meters in the narrowest and 4-5 meters in widest points; the natural canyon, contrary to popular belief, was not excavated over thousands of years by water. The most likely it is related to seismic events that, with a vibrating-tectonic movement, made literally split in two the old basaltic lakes formed by the leakage of magma from cracks, older than 300,000 years, allowing the river water to creep inside. This phenomenon is evidenced by the fact that the structure of the walls (similar in some points to "stacks of wood" and in others to "organ columns") is intact and angular.

The Alcantara river flows between lava stones that form its characteristic river bed. In the territory of Motta Camstra in Fondaco Motta there is the most impressive and famous Alcantara's gorge, long more than 6 km and walk able only for the first 3.

The peculiarity of this gorge is the structure of the walls, created by a flow of basaltic lava (poor in silica but rich in iron, magnesium and calcium). The lava is then cooled very slowly, because the great plateau of the problems created thick, allowing it to create prismatic pentagonal and hexagonal shapes that recall the molecular structure of materials that make it up.

Just look at this beautiful creation of mother nature!