Monte Circeo or Cape Circeo ( it, Promontorio del Circeo , la, Mons Circeius) 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 so ...

that marks the southwestern limit of the former Pontine Marshes.located on the southwest coast of Italy near San Felice Circeo. 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 th ...

, 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 Pontine Marshes. Most of the ancient swamp has been reclaimed for agriculture and urban areas. The mountain, the coastal zone as far north as Latina, including the only remaining remnant of the swamp, and two of the Pontine Islands offshore, Zannone and Ponza, have been included in the

Circeo National Park Circeo National Park (Italian: ''Parco Nazionale del Circeo'') is an Italian national park founded in 1934. It occupies a strip of coastal land from Anzio to Terracina, including also a sector of forest in the mainland of San Felice Circeo, and t ...

Geology

Although a headland, it was not formed by coastal erosion – as headlands are usually formed – but is a remnant of the orogenic processes that created the

Apennines The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

. The entire coast of Lazio, on which the mountain and the marsh are located, was a chain of barrier islands that was formed on a horst and made part of the mainland by sedimentation of the intervening

graben In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic contex ...

. The mountain is composed mostly of

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

and sandstone from the

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...

and of limestone from the lower Early Jurassic.

Prehistory

In 1939, the skull of a Neanderthal 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 National Park of Circeo, established in 1934 on over the territories of Latina, Sabaudia, San Felice Circeo and Zannone Island (minor island of Ponziane Archipelago).

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 Italy