Alcantara (river)
| Alcantara | ||
 Course of the Alcantara River |
||
| Data | ||
| location | Sicily | |
| River system | Alcantara | |
| source | near Floresta in the Monti Nebrodi 37 ° 56 ′ 39 ″ N , 14 ° 55 ′ 32 ″ E |
|
| Source height | 1250 m slm | |
| muzzle | at Giardini-Naxos in the Ionian Sea Coordinates: 37 ° 48 ′ 25 ″ N , 15 ° 15 ′ 27 ″ E 37 ° 48 ′ 25 ″ N , 15 ° 15 ′ 27 ″ E
|
|
| length | 52 km | |
Alcantara is a river in Sicily . The name is of Arabic origin ( al-qanṭarah "the bridge, the bridge arch") and refers to a bridge from Roman times that the Arabs found near the mouth.
course
The Alcantara rises at an altitude of 1250 m on the south side of the Monti Nebrodi near the village of Floresta . On its 52 km long way to the mouth it flows through the territories of the north of Etna situated towns Randazzo , Mojo Alcantara , Francavilla di Sicilia , Motta Camastra , Castiglione di Sicilia , Graniti , Gaggi , Calatabiano , Taormina and Giardini Naxos before at Capo Schiso in Giardini-Naxos (south of Taormina) flows into the Ionian Sea .
A few thousand years ago, the river bed was blocked by a lava flow from the Etna secondary crater near Mojo Alcantara. Since the lava was cooled much faster by the water than in the air, it took on a special shape when it solidified, the columnar lava. Over the millennia, the river has cut its way through this lava flow and formed beautiful gorges, the Gole dell'Alcantara .
Alcantara River Park
In 2001, a river park Alcantara ( Parco fluviale dell'Alcantara ) was set up to protect the river on the one hand and to promote its use as a recreation area and tourist destination on the other.
Picture gallery
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Behnstedt, Manfred Woidich: Word Atlas of Arabic Dialects . Volume II: Material Culture. BRILL, 2011, ISBN 978-90-04-22467-4 , pp. 188 ( Google Books ).