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In the tourist's mind Sardinia is associated with sea, but the island's life and history have much more to do with inland and mountains than with sea and coasts.
The most amazing site, quite the symbol of the island, is perhaps the Nuragic village of Monte Tiscali. This mountain, rising in the middle of the isolated Lanaitto valley, is already little by its own (518 m), but is dwarfed even more by the closeness with the majestic Supramonte.
On the summit ridge opens a dolina, originating from the crash of a huge cave vault, event that seemingly took place in rather recent (geologically speaking) ages, namely, 15000 to 10000 years ago.
This highly protected, nearly inaccessible site was chosen as a natural fortress by the Nuragic civilization, dating back to 1500-800 b.C. While nowadays there is a rather easy access on the E side, which can be seen clearly in www.panoramio.com/photo/86596165 taken instead from the overhanging side. Thus, at the time the only feasible access was through a hole deeply carved in the rock on the S side.
Alas, the archaeological site has been heavily spoiled in the past decades by the action of thieves and vandals - only since few years the site is guarded day and night.
The panorama has little to do with the dolina, since it is taken from the very summit of the mountain, where one does not even guess the existence of the amazing geological feature. Here we see a late moment in the short winter afternoon. I have climbed the W side of the mountain (next day I will learn that the standard access is from the Súrtana side, that is, E side, directly to the easy dolina "door"). I have failed to guess the striking crack in the rock which gives access to a long ledge going to the dolina, and therefore it is by error that I am on the summit. I will recover the path later, and I will be able to descend in darkness with the help of the GPS to my "base camp" at Sa Oche, "the voice" - strange name for a cave which is almost always dry, but it is said to get filled by a noisy waterfall after heavy rain.
Hans-Jürgen Bayer, Hans-Jörg Bäuerle, Paul Chater, Thomas Janeck, Martin Kraus, Maurice Küsel, Giuseppe Marzulli, Uta Philipp, Jan Lindgaard Rasmussen, Danko Rihter, Christoph Seger, Rainer Ulm, Jens Vischer, Augustin Werner
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Comments
This beautiful panorama has its own special charm.
Potrei raccontare di Tiscali molte cose, ma farei fatica a scriverle in inglese. Dico solo che Tiscali è stato finora il posto in cui ho sofferto maggiormente la sete.
«It is difficult to explain Tiscali to those who have not been there. I can only give the advice to go and see».
This difficulty was precisely the reason which delayed so much the publication - I see that the image by itself was on Panoramio (www.panoramio.com/photo/84683995) already in January.
Actually, I also found Tiscali very different from how I had understood it from reports. There is very little to see as far as buildings are concerned: the island is full of far better preserved Nuragic sites. It is the setting which is unique here; add that the inside of the dolina is also of the utmost botanical interest, and that the isolated and hidden Lanaitto valley is very suggestive also by itself.
Rainer: it is difficult to image snow at 518 metres in the middle of the Tyrrhenian, but it did not lack on the ridges of the Gennargentu (for the skeptic: picasaweb.google.com/albertopedrotti/Sardegna#5848900402862848946).
Curiously enough, in the list of "interesting" mountains which I have climbed, I found Tiscali among the «bottom ten» (...) as far as height is concerned, although severely beaten by Mount Kyntos, on the Greek island of Delos, at no more than 114 metres!
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