The Platani ( scn, Plàtani), known in

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

as the (''Lykos'', "wolf") or (''Halykos'', "Salty"), is a river in southern

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is the fifth longest in the island after

Imera Meridionale The Salso ( Sicilian: ''Salsu''), also known as the Imera Meridionale (Greek: ; Latin Himera), is a river of Sicily. It rises in the Madonie Mountains (Latin: Nebrodes Mons; Sicilian: Munti Madunìi) and, traversing the provinces of Enna and Calt ...

, Simeto, Belice and Dittaino, with a course of 103 km, and the third for

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

with 1,785 km², after the Simeto and Imera Meridionale. It flows through the provinces of

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for it ...

and

Agrigento Agrigento (; scn, Girgenti or ; grc, Ἀκράγας, translit=Akrágas; la, Agrigentum or ; ar, كركنت, Kirkant, or ''Jirjant'') is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one o ...

, marking the boundary between the latter and that of Caltanissetta. left, The Platani river near Heraclea Minoa. The river generates at the confluence of Platani di Lercara and Platani di Castronuovo, which, respectively, springs in the '' comuni'' of Lercara Friddi (under the Pizzo Lanzone mountain) and Santo Stefano Quisquina (between the Serra della Moneta and Pizzo della Rondine mountains). From the confluence to the mouth it runs for c. 83 km; including the branch of Castronuovo the total length is 103 km. Along its course the Platani receives the waters of several affluents, including the Gallo d'Oro, Turvoli, Vallone Morella, Vallone Tumarrano and Vallone di Aragona. The river flows into the Strait of Sicily, near Capo Bianco, on the boundary of the ''comuni'' of Ribera and Cattolica Eraclea.

References

Sources

{{Authority control Rivers of Italy Rivers of Sicily Rivers of the Province of Palermo Rivers of the Province of Agrigento Rivers of the Province of Caltanissetta European drainage basins of the Mediterranean Sea