An island in the Mediterranean
The second largest island in the Mediterranean, Sardinia has beautiful proportions. Its 24,000 square kilometers offer landscapes of plains and mountains, jagged coasts and fine sandy beaches. In the heart of the western Mediterranean, it is also the most distant island from the mainland: 188 km from the Torre Ciana point in Tuscany, 190 km from the Tunisian Bizerte, 330 km from Toulon. But the island is separated only by 12 small kilometers from Corsica and Bonifacio. It is guarded by some archipelagos and sentinel islands. Asinara in the north-west went from being a high-security penitentiary to a national park in 1997. The archipelago of the Maddalena at the northern tip is one of the island's tourist gems. The island of Tavolara and its 565 meter high peak block the access to the Olbia harbor. Finally, the archaeological site of Sant'Antioco and the small fishing town of Carloforte on San Pietro to the southwest attest to the long-standing occupation of these two islands. The capital of Sardinia, Cagliari, is located in the south of the island, in one of the few sheltered natural bays, identified in ancient times by the Phoenicians who founded the port city. For geographical and historical reasons, Sardinia has few important port cities. The constant invasions and a coastal relief not very favorable to the establishment of cities have pushed the inhabitants to occupy more willingly the interior of the lands. We can however quote Alghero in the northwest and Olbia in the northeast. Sassari in the north, Oristano in the west and Nuoro in the east are withdrawn inland or in the mountains. The last official census in 2011 reported a population of 1,639,362, the majority of whom live in rural areas or in small towns. Only 37% of Sardinians live in urban areas. The island is divided administratively into 5 distinct provinces: Cagliari and its metropolis in the south, South Sardinia, Oristano in the west, Sassari in the north and Nuoro in the east.
Geological Formation
In 1936, the French geographer Maurice Le Lannou deplored the "extraordinarily precarious knowledge on the relief of Sardinia". It is however, with some Alpine massifs and the tip of the Italian boot, the oldest lands in Europe. The granitic base of the southern part of the island dates back to the Variscan orogeny, that is to say, to the beginning of the Primary Era between 419 and 252 million years ago. During this period, the continental plates are packed and overlapped. During the Tertiary Era (-65 to -2 million years ago), secondary seas transformed the island into an archipelago, before great eruptions welded the elements together. The plain of Campidano in the southwest of Sardinia is only a vast ditch filled with water at the beginning of the Tertiary before becoming a very rich alluvial plain at the end of the same era. 20 million years ago, Corsica and Sardinia form a single island and gradually move away from the continent. We find the same rocks and lava flows in these islands and in the Massif des Maures or the Esterel, which suggest that Sardinia and Corsica were attached to the continent. The tectonic movements have fragmented the primitive basaltic mass to form the mountains that cross the island. The floor of the faults was progressively filled by trachytic effusions, on which were deposited limestone and marl. There are fifteen massifs that send back to each other their mountains with bumpy summits back to back. The highest, the Marmora, watches over the Gennargentu massif at 1,834 meters in the province of Nuoro. The massifs are connected by high plateaus, while the plains mark the fracture lines. The Campidano plain crosses the southwest of the island on a Cagliari-Oristano axis, leaving on its left the low-lying massifs of Sulcis and Iglesia. In the northwest of the island, the Nurra plain separates Sassari from the sea. Apart from these two great plains, Sardinia is crossed by reliefs of more or less intensity. Therefore, the island offers few long beaches. Its 1,896 kilometers of coastline are punctuated by small coves stretched out at the foot of limestone or granite walls and its seabed covered with rocky crevices are a delight for divers.
The Sardinian ribs
If the Sardinians are looking at the Nuoro mountains, tourists appreciate the crystal clear waters that bathe the coast without reservation. The water of Sardinia is among the most beautiful in the world: the coasts with contrasting colors plunge into a sea with all shades of blue. The western side offers very fragmented landscapes, a jagged coastline that reveals coves sometimes accessible only by sea. From the steep Capo Falcone, facing the island of Asinara, to Alghero, the coastline is high and steep. Cape Mannu rises to the north of the Sinis peninsula, with yellow limestone cliffs 50 m high. A little further down, a solitary plateau of crumbly limestone juts out into the sea from its 25 meters. An alternation of coves, white rocks and beaches faces the Isola di Mal di Ventre, flat and distant, and, towards the interior, a vast expanse of fields and crops. The Costa Verde, south of Oristano, is windier. Huge dunes that can reach 30 meters high are next to a hinterland covered with Mediterranean scrub. Further south, the coastline is bordered by limestone rocks with a purplish color, contrasting with the enormous Pan di Zucchero, an imposing 132-meter high islet that faces it. On this coast, the isobath freezes at 200 meters only 20 meters from the shore. To the south, the coast from Villasimius to the Costa Rei is characterized by its linearity and lack of relief. The beaches are very long and flat for several kilometers. In the hinterland, there are many citrus plantations. On the east coast, on the other hand, the high mountains plunge steeply into the sea forming an impassable barrier, especially between Arbatax and Orosei. Going up to Porto Cervo, the Costa Smeralda offers its visitors an infinite number of small coves and beaches bordering an emerald sea. The jet set has made it their summer paradise and reserves for themselves the most beautiful seaside views of the island. Underwater, too, the landscape is spectacular, with faults plunging 1,000 meters only 15 kilometers from the coast. The Costa Paradiso, in the north, between Santa Teresa di Gallura and Castelsardo, is characterized by alternating red porphyry rocks and beaches. The Capo Falcone, made of schistose rocks, stands at the end of the peninsula of Stintino, facing the island of Asinara. The dark color of its rocks contrasts with the limpidity of the water and the whiteness of the sand of the beach of La Pelosa, one of the most beautiful of the island. Among the notable beaches, let's mention the adorable Cala Luna and its mysterious caves, the one of Budelli with its pink sand or the amazing Cala Brandichini between sea and lagoon which reminds Tahiti.
Natural and Mining Resources
The populations chose to forsake the beautiful coastal areas from the Nuraghic period (1800 BC), preferring the plateau areas, between 500 and 600 meters of altitude. That allowed them to watch the environment and to see coming any attempt of invasion. But the abandonment of the fertile plains of the Campidano led to a great effort of adaptation. The eroded rocks are not very suitable for agriculture. Therefore, the inhabitants opt for a pastoral way of life. The herds graze on the plateaus of scrubland, moorland and garrigue, where almost nothing grows. But it is the geological wealth that attracted the Phoenicians, then the Carthaginians and finally the Romans, to try to take over Sardinia. The subsoil abounds in mining wealth, including the coveted obsidian, a glassy lava rock rich in silica. It is used to make tools and was the object of intense trading in the Mediterranean in ancient times. The Campidano plain, in addition to offering fertile land favorable to the cultivation of wheat, abounds in zinc and lead, especially in the area of Arbus and Montevecchio. The area around Carbonia, which is well known for its coal and iron mining, has been used since the arrival of the Phoenicians. But it is of course the invention of dynamite and industrialization that will intensify this mining industry in the 19th century. The extraction of silver was to arouse the covetousness of the Romans, who used it to mint coins, as well as that of the mining industrialists of the end of the 19th century. The deposit of Sarrabus in the south-east of Sardinia provoked a real rush in the 1870s. Exceptionally rich, the researchers obtain 1 kilo of pure silver by quintal of lead, when usually it is 200 to 300 grams dearly extracted. But there are also copper and iron mines in Barbagia, antimony in Sarrabus-Gerei, calamine in Iglesiente. This exploitation of the subsoil has left many traces on the territory, starting with unequivocal place names: Argentiera, Capo Ferrato, Carbonia, Montiferru..
Along the way
The geostrategic position of Sardinia in the heart of the western Mediterranean basin has not however generated great navigators. The Sardinians preferred to turn to the interior of the lands. The island is bathed by the Sardinian Sea to the west, the Tyrrhenian Sea which separates it from the Italian boot to the east and the Mouths of Bonifacio to the north. As we have seen, the often tortured coast is not very favorable to the establishment of ports. Most of them are recent constructions, marinas protected by concrete dikes, intended to shelter tourist ships and yachts. The island has four main rivers that have their source in the mountain streams: the Tirso (152 km) flows into Oristano; the Flumendosa (127 km) ends its course in the Tyrrhenian Sea; the Coghinas (116 km) waters the north of the island; the Cedrino (80 km) flows down the slopes of the Nuoro mountains to Orosei. Dams have been built on these rivers to create retention basins for the irrigation of crops. The dam of Santa Chiara del Tirso in the center of the island has created the largest reservoir in Italy, Lake Omodeo. The only natural lake in Sardinia is the one of Baratz, north of Alghero. Surrounded by wooded hills, it is a quiet place that attracts birds.
