The Grotta di Ispinigoli is a
karst cave in the
Supramonte
The Supramonte is a mountain range located in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy. It lies northeast of the Gennargentu massif, traveling eastwards until it reaches the Tyrrhenian Sea at the Gulf of Orosei. It has an area of about 35,000 hectares, ...
range, near
Dorgali
Dorgali ( sc, Durgali) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region Sardinia, located about northeast of Cagliari and about east of Nuoro in the Seaside Supramonte mountain area.
Economy is mostly based on th ...
,
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
.
Overview
One of the largest caves on the island, it contains the tallest column, the tallest in Europe and one of the tallest in the world, measuring circa 38 m in total. The cave also includes the so-called ''Abisso delle Vergini'' ("Abyss of the Virgins"), a c. 60 m-deep hole leading to a 12 km series of caves connecting Ispingoli to San Giovanni su Anzu cave. Inside the cave were found traces of human bones and jewelry dating back the Bronze Age, the site was used as burial place by the
Nuragic people.
At the bottom of the abyss, were found traces of the extinct giant otter ''
Megalenhydris
''Megalenhydris barbaricina'' is a Late Pleistocene giant otter from Sardinia. It is known from a single skeleton, discovered in the ''Grotta di Ispinigoli'' near Dorgali, and was described in 1987. The species is one of four extinct otter speci ...
''. This animal is one of four species of extinct endemic otters on the island.
See also
*
Bue Marino Grotto
*
Tiscali Cave
*
List of caves
This is a list of caves of the world that have articles or that are properly cited. They are sorted by continent and then country. Caves which are in overseas territories on a different continent than the home country are sorted by the territory' ...
*
List of caves in Italy
External links
Page about the grottoes{{in lang, it
Ispingoli
Landforms of Sardinia
Ispinigoli
Ispingoli
Province of Nuoro