Monte Circeo or Cape Circeo ( , ) is a mountain

promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the s ...

that marks the southwestern limit of the former

Pontine Marshes 250px, Lake Fogliano, a coastal lagoon in the Pontine Plain The Pontine Marshes ( , ; , formerly also ; [] by Titus Livius, [] and [] by Pliny the Elder''Natural History'' 3.59.) is an approximately quadrangular area of former marshland ...

, located on the southwest coast of Italy near

San Felice Circeo San Felice Circeo is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Latina, in the Lazio region of central Italy. It was an ancient city called Circeii. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). It is included i ...

. At the northern end of the

Gulf of Gaeta The Gulf of Gaeta is a body of water on the west coast of Italy and part of the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is bounded by Cape Circeo in the north, Ischia and the Gulf of Naples in the south, and the Pontine Islands in the west. The gulf is named for ...

, it is about long by wide at the base, running from east to west and surrounded by the sea on all sides except the north. The land to the northeast is the former ancient

. Most of the ancient swamp has been land reclamation, reclaimed for agriculture and urban areas. The mountain, the coastal zone as far north as Latina, Lazio, Latina, including the only remaining remnant of the swamp, and two of the

Pontine Islands The Pontine Islands (, also ; ) are an archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Lazio region, Italy. The islands were collectively named after the largest island in the group, Ponza. The other islands in the archipelago are Palmarol ...

offshore,

Zannone Zannone is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the west coast of Italy, and is part of the Pontine Islands, administratively in the ''comune'' of Ponza. The entire island is about in size and about from Ponza Island.Ponza Ponza (Italian: ''isola di Ponza'' ) is the largest island of the Italy, Italian Pontine Islands archipelago, located south of Cape Circeo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is also the name of the commune of the island, a part of the province of Latina ...

, have been included in the

Circeo National Park Circeo National Park (Italian language, Italian: ''Parco Nazionale del Circeo'') is an List of national parks of Italy, Italian national park founded in 1934. It occupies a strip of coastal land from Anzio to Terracina, including also a sector of ...

Geology

Although a headland, it was not formed by

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of Wind wave, waves, Ocean current, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts ...

– as headlands are usually formed – but is a remnant of the orogenic processes that created the

Apennines The Apennines or Apennine Mountains ( ; or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; or – a singular with plural meaning; )Latin ''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which would be segmented ''Apenn-inus'', often used with nouns s ...

. The entire coast of

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, on which the mountain and the marsh are located, was a chain of

barrier islands Barrier islands are a coastal landform, a type of dune system and sand island, where an area of sand has been formed by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from a few is ...

that was formed on a horst and made part of the mainland by sedimentation of the intervening

graben In geology, a graben () is a depression (geology), depressed block of the Crust (geology), crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German language, German, meaning 'ditch' or 't ...

. The mountain is composed mostly of

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, Clay minerals, clays, and silt. When Lithification, hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. M ...

and

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 ...

from the

Paleogene The Paleogene Period ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period Ma. It is the fir ...

and of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

from the lower

Early Jurassic The Early Jurassic Epoch (geology), Epoch (in chronostratigraphy corresponding to the Lower Jurassic series (stratigraphy), Series) is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic Period. The Early Jurassic starts immediately after the Triassic� ...

. The mountain features several caves, including the Goats Cave and the Guattari Cave.

Prehistory

In 1939, the skull of a

Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

man was found in the Guattari Cave by a team led by Alberto Carlo Blanc. Several other findings also show that the mountain was inhabited in prehistorical times. In May 2021, the remains of 9 Neanderthal men were discovered in the same Guattari cave. The Minister of Culture in Italy declared the site to be one of the most significant in the world regarding the Neanderthal period.Elisabetta Povoledo
These Neanderthals Weren’t Cannibals, So Who Ate Them? Stone Age Hyenas.
''Nytimes.com'', 8 May 2021

History

Today

Mount Circeo is today included in the

, established in 1934 on over the territories of Latina, Sabaudia, San Felice Circeo and

References

External links

Holiday, sea, places to visit

Hystory and Legends
{{Authority control Circeo Circeo Circeo Landforms of the Tyrrhenian Sea Biosphere reserves of Italy Neanderthal sites Horsts (geology) Archaeological sites in Lazio