Pantalica Nature Reserve

Pantalica Nature Reserve tickets and tours: which one to book

Pantalica is a limestone plateau ringed by deep river gorges in the Hyblaean hills of south-eastern Sicily, about forty kilometres, an hour by winding roads, inland from Syracuse, whose cliffs are honeycombed with thousands of prehistoric tombs, and it is both an archaeological site of the first rank and the most beautiful piece of wild country in this corner of the island. It is free and unfenced, and there is no public transport, so visitors come by car or on the trekking tours from Syracuse, which supply a guide and sometimes a lunch of local produce at a farm. The one thing that must be understood beforehand is that there are two main entrances, on opposite sides, and that the roads to them do not connect: the road from Ferla, to the west, ends at the Sella di Filiporto, and the road from Sortino, to the east, ends above the Calcinara gorge; to drive from one to the other takes nearly an hour.

The Ferla side is the easier and gives the quickest access to the principal monuments: from the parking places along the last stretch of road, short paths lead to the Filiporto necropolis, to the Byzantine rock village of San Micidiario, and to the Anaktoron, the so-called prince's palace, on the top of the plateau, and a longer path descends to the river. From the Sortino side a stepped mule track drops steeply into the gorge of the Calcinara, crosses the stream and climbs past the north necropolis, the most spectacular of all, a whole cliff pierced like a dovecote. A third way in is along the floor of the Anapo valley, entered from gates near Ferla-Cassaro or from the Sortino side at Fusco, following the level bed of a dismantled railway through its tunnels for thirteen kilometres, which is ideal for families and cyclists; forestry staff sometimes run a shuttle along it.

Visiting Pantalica Nature Reserve: what you will see

The nature reserve of Pantalica, the Anapo valley and the Cava Grande torrent was established by the Sicilian region in 1997 and covers some 3,700 hectares; in 2005 Pantalica was inscribed, together with Syracuse, as a World Heritage Site. The plateau is a natural fortress, a spur almost entirely surrounded by the canyons of the Anapo and its tributary the Calcinara, which have cut up to two hundred metres into the white limestone, and joined to the surrounding tableland only by a narrow neck at Filiporto, across which a defensive ditch was dug. About 1250 BC, the native people of the coast, under pressure, it is thought, from new arrivals by sea, abandoned their settlements and withdrew to such strongholds in the interior, and for the next six hundred years Pantalica was the chief of them, very probably the Hybla of the ancient writers, whose king Hyblon granted the Greek colonists of Megara the land for their city. Of the town itself, built of perishable materials, almost nothing remains except the Anaktoron, a building of great squared blocks, recalling Mycenaean work, which may have been the ruler's residence and held a bronze foundry.

The dead are what survive: some five thousand chamber tombs, cut by hand with stone and bronze tools into the vertical cliffs, in five great cemeteries of different periods, small square or oval rooms entered by a window-like opening once closed by a slab, each holding the members of a family laid out with pottery of red burnished ware, bronze knives, razors, fibulae and mirrors, now displayed in the archaeological museum of Syracuse, which bears the name of Paolo Orsi, the archaeologist who explored the site from 1895. The place was abandoned after the foundation of the Syracusan outpost of Akrai in 664 BC. It was reoccupied in the early Middle Ages, when the people of the coast fled inland again, from Arab raids, enlarged the old tombs into dwellings and cut small churches in the rock, San Micidiario, San Nicolicchio and the Grotta del Crocifisso, with traces of fresco. The name is perhaps from the Arabic for caves. Below, the Anapo, the river whose springs fed the aqueduct of Greek Syracuse, runs clear and cold between plane trees, oleanders, willows and poplars, with trout of a native Sicilian form, freshwater crabs, porcupines, martens, peregrines, Bonelli's eagles and, on the dry slopes, orchids, euphorbia and wild thyme.

Pantalica Nature Reserve: best time to go, seasons and hours

The reserve is open daily from about 7 am to an hour before sunset. Spring, from March to May, is by far the best season, when the plateau is covered with wild flowers and orchids, the streams are full and the temperature perfect for the steep paths; October and November are also fine; winter is mild and green, with rain at times. In July and August the heat in the gorges is fierce, there is little shade on the upper paths, and the reserve may be closed on days of high fire risk;

walk early, and cool off in the pools of the Calcinara. Wear proper shoes, since the mule tracks are rocky and polished, and carry water and food, as there is nothing on site. Allow half a day, a full day to cross from one side to the other. Ferla and Sortino, a town known for honey and puppets, are ten minutes from the entrances, Palazzolo Acreide with its Greek theatre half an hour, and Syracuse and Noto an hour.