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| Going down the 654-step escala del cabirol |
Today, Joseph de Ca'th Lon and his friends are visiting La Cova de Neptú in Sardìnnia because loves Archaeology and Speleology and this cave is a wonderful natural place to enjoy both of them.
During the travel from the beautiful town of Casteddu to La Cova de Neptú, The Grandma has been studying a new lesson of her interesting and amazing Elementary Language Practice manual (Grammar 11).
More information: Past Simple of Be I & II
La Cova de Neptú in Catalan or Grotte di Nettuno in Italian (Neptune's Grotto) is a stalactite cave near the town of L'Alguer on the island of Sardìnnia.
The cave was discovered by local fishermen in the 18th century and has since developed into a popular tourist attraction. The grotto gets its name from the Roman god of the sea, Neptune.
The entrance to the grotto lies only around a metre above the sea level at the foot of the 110-metre-high Capo Caccia cliffs and the cave can therefore only be visited when the waters below are calm.
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| Inside La Cova de Neptú, an amazing place |
A stairway cut into the cliff in 1954, the 654-step escala del cabirol, goat's steps, leads from a car park at the top of the cliff down to the entrance. The grotto is also accessible via a short boat trip from the port of L'Alguer; these trips are arranged hourly during the summer, but less frequently during spring and autumn.
Two other grottoes lie nearby, the Green grotto, which is not open to tourists, and the Grotta di Ricami, which is only accessible from the sea. Under water all around there are many big under water marine caves, paradise for the scuba-diving fans, the bigger and the most famous is the Nereo Cave, visited each year by thousands of scuba divers.
More information: Sardegna Turismo
The combined length of the cave system is estimated to be around 4 kilometers, but only a few hundred metres are accessible to the public. Inside are passages of lit stalactite and stalagmite formations, and a 120-metre-long saltwater lake, which is at sea level. The cave was once a habitat for the Mediterranean monk seal, which has become extinct in the area.
Tourists visiting La Cova de Neptú are given guided tours and led single-file through a lit pathway, with tour guides providing information about the cave in Catalan, Italian and English. The grotto is widely visited, and during the peak tourist season in August, can contain around 200 people at a time.
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| Going up the 654-step escala del cabirol |
La Cova de Neptú was the set of the movie Island of the Fishmen, filmed in the summer of 1978. For approximately two months the Grotto was transformed into a gigantic set. The science fiction movie starred Barbara Bach, and was under the direction of Sergio Martino.
Neptune, in Latin Neptūnus, was the god of freshwater and the sea in Roman religion. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Neptune was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto; the brothers presided over the realms of Heaven, the earthly world, and the Underworld. Salacia was his wife.
Depictions of Neptune in Roman mosaics, especially those of North Africa, are influenced by Hellenistic conventions. Neptune was likely associated with fresh water springs before the sea. Like Poseidon, Neptune was worshipped by the Romans also as a god of horses, under the name Neptunus Equester, a patron of horse-racing.
The etymology of Latin Neptunus is unclear and disputed. The ancient grammarian Varro derived the name from nuptus i.e. covering (opertio), with a more or less explicit allusion to the nuptiae, marriage of Heaven and Earth.
More information: Grotte di Nettuno
In archaeology, context is the basis of many discoveries
that are imputed to the deliberate workings of intelligence.
If I find a rock chipped in such a way as to give it a sharp edge,
and the discovery is made in a cave,
I am seduced into ascribing this to tool use by distant,
fetid and furry ancestors.
Seth Shostak
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