CavaGrande is a deep valley, called canyon by some people, formed by the non stop erosionof the Cassibile river during the passing of the centuries, the river created over the centuries a series of deep canyon in the limestone of the hyblean mountains. In the valley, has come to form a complex system of small waterfalls and natural reservoirs where often it’s allowed to swim in. It is about ten kilometers long, a maximum width of more than one thousand meters (at the confluence with the valley Passetti), and a maximum depth of over 300 meters. The highest altitude reached the plateau on the bed of the river is 520 m above sea level, but it is close to the viewpoint of Avola Antica, with its 507 meters, that the river reaches its maximum depth. In this section it reaches its maximum width of 1200 meters. In the 10 km length of the canyon, as mentioned, you can admire lots of lakes, with fresh and clear water, among which stand out for their beauty small lakes near Avola Antica accessible to the public through a historical scale, called Scala Cruci. Cava Grande is known almost entirely for the lakes accessible from the path «cruci-scale» from the viewpoint that goes down to the valley floor. But Cava Grande, in fact, it has dozens of trails that allow you to reach every part of it. Defended by inaccessible sheer cliffs of the quarry and the proximity of water, the Sicilians, who were maybe the first inhabitants of this place, built two rock villages, still difficult to reach and which now became part of the landscape. Around the thirteenth century BC, some citizens of south-eastern Sicily, perhaps driven by the more aggressive Italic citizen, preferred to take refuge in these inaccessible and well defended places. At least two rock settlements are known, the northern one that you can notice as soon as you get a view from the lookout, and the southern, in the almost opposite side. The first dates back to the XI-X BC, according to suggestion only second after Pantalica, where there are hundreds of cave tombs and early Christian tombs carved into the walls, arranged side by side, on six different parallel levels. The mouth of the river Cassibile is a hystorical place, as the captain Demosthenes in 413 BC with 6,000 Athenians had to surrender to the city of Siracusa. These places were exploited until the first half of the last century. In fact, just above the ponds there was a monastery, which you can still see the ruins of and the homes of some families of Canicattini as Bombaci and Bird, who drew sustenance from the production of olive, carob and almond. On the north side you can see a small cluster of cave dwellings. In the south there is a complex system of houses dug into the rock, placed side by side on six different parallel levels, connected by a system of tunnels and galleries. While the edge of the reserve, north-east, there are several ancient necropolis, in which were found rich grave goods and ceramic material: its unique decoration, called feathered or marbled, is part of the Ausonia culture which lived in the Aeolian islands and in eastern Sicily around the 1000 BC.
To learn more: http://www.cavagrandedelcassibile.it
Indirizzo: SS115 – 96013 Avola Siracusa
Coordinate: N 36.967587 – E 15.093988
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