The Peloritani (
Sicilian: , ) are a mountain range of north-eastern
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. ...
, in southern
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 ...
, extending for some from
Capo Peloro to the
Nebrodi Mountains. On the north and east they are bordered by the
Tyrrhenian and
Ionian Seas respectively, and on the south by the
Alcantara River .
The highest peaks are the Montagna Grande (), the
Rocca di Novara (), the
Pizzo di Vernà (), the Monte Poverello () and the
Monte Scuderi (). The range is made up of a long series of peaks, with an average height of , intermingled with ridges and ravines. The deep gorges house numerous streams that create the typical rivers of this land called , often full of
deprises in their inferior flow. The most common rocks are of
igneous and
metamorphic origin.
Sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
soils are also present. Of unusual origin are the
megaliths
A megalith is a large Rock (geology), stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging ...
rocks of the
Argimusco plateau.
Vegetation includes
holm oak,
oak,
cork oak,
beech,
pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae.
''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...
and
chestnut, which once formed large forests but are now, mostly due to human presence, reduced to sparse woods so that the landscape is largely
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the tropical and subtropica ...
-like. Several pine woods have been reconstituted by the local authorities since the 1950s.
An ancient path, , runs along the ridge line from
Monte Dinnammare above the
Strait of Messina to the
Rocca di Novara.
References
Mountain ranges of Italy
Mountains of Sicily
Mountain ranges of Sicily
{{Sicily-geo-stub