The Augusta Bay is located on the east coast of
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, about 270
nm south-southeast of
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
.
[Augusta Bay Port Facility ]
/ref> In the ancient period it was called Xiphonius portus (). The modern Capo di Santa Croce was called Xiphonian Promontory (). Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...
mentions that the Carthaginian The term Carthaginian ( ) usually refers to the civilisation of ancient Carthage.
It may also refer to:
* Punic people, the Semitic-speaking people of Carthage
* Punic language
The Punic language, also called Phoenicio-Punic or Carthaginian, i ...
fleet (263 B.C.) touched at Xiphonia on its way to Syracuse, Sicily
Syracuse ( ; ; ) is a historic city on the Italian island of Sicily, the capital of the Italian province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek and Roman history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace ...
. Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...
wrote about a town there which was called Xiphonia (Ξιφωνία), but most probably he made a mistake, since no other known ancient author mentioned it.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Xiphonius Portus
/ref>
It is the location of the Augusta Bay Port Facility which supports the Sixth Fleet
The Sixth Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy operating as part of United States Naval Forces Europe and Africa. The Sixth Fleet is headquartered at Naval Support Activity Naples, Italy. The officially stated mission of the Sixt ...
of the US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
. The facility is distributed among Porto Megarese, Porto Xifonio and Seno del Priolo.[
]
See also
*Augusta-Priolo
The petrochemical complex of Augusta-Priolo (called ''Polo petrolchimico siracusano'' in Italian) is a vast industrialized coastal area in eastern Sicily including the territory of the municipalities of Augusta, Priolo Gargallo and Melilli. Main ...
References
External links
Augusta Port
Landforms of Sicily
Bays of Italy
Ports and harbours of Italy
{{Sicily-geo-stub