The PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Calabria, once known as <<The Great Bosco d'Italia>> is a region that has many mountain chains and mass, especially in the northern part of its territory for the extension and some of its own characteristics, Sila predominates on each other; already his name, which means <<selva>>, contributes to a large woods, quiet pine forests, green pastures. The Sila extends on an altitude of 1400 meters, 1700 square kilometres, and has suddividerla usual, from north to south, Sila Greek, Large and Small is a large granite acrocoro which begins south of the river for Savuto Finally, as an appendix, with the spur of the mountain Reventino, near Nicastro. Start from the north, along the ion, with easily accessible slopes, valleys, and open, and slowly rises to the highest peaks; north and west, however, the transition from flat area is sharp and quick: only after 1000 meters opens in all its breadth, with gentle undulations, the plateau itself, occupied by grazing fields of grain, and sometimes even by acquitrinose basins. Even in the southernmost part of Silas, known as the Small, rugged hills are carved from the numerous rivers and features Calabria, the valleys willing to adjust raggera. The Romany, who already knew the woods rich wood of Silas, it also included in the plateau of Serre and Aspromonte; very soon became a property to prevent the mountain was stripped of its natural wealth. The name of Greece to the northernmost territory of Silas stems from the fact that during the Byzantine, and again in the fifteenth century, with the appropriation of numerous ethnic Albanians, then called generically Greeks, the resident population was large part of the Greek language ; subsequent division into Great and Small derives from administrative reasons, as the Great is part of the territory of the province of Cosenza, while the small belongs to the province of Catanzaro. Della Silas are also part of other groups such as mountainous Presila by Rossano in Catanzaro, the Marquis, a large territory once belonging to the family Ruffo, who is from Cosenza dipartiva in countries all around, and Casali, including in the valleys formed by Savuto Crati and rivers. The geological composition of Sila is due for the most part to granite, so that the core group of is compact, with only very few infiltrations other material; this granite mass is supporting granatiferi schist. The geological periods recognizable beautiful land silanes from Jurassic all'eocenico, in the area between Longobucco, and Bocchigliero Cropalati; across the eastern and southern belt around the plateau silane belongs to periods miocenico and pliocenico. The natural Silas was recently changed by the work, which built dams of the dam in order to obtain large artificial lakes that feed power plants, and introduced the crops up to the highest altitudes granted. Another impressive and complex group is mountainous dall'Aspromonte, which represents the extreme importance of the southern Italian peninsula, is clearly defined along three sides by the sea, while to the north, the piece of land, its boundaries are uncertain and not easily determined: you can still recital including, in the west, between Métramo and Mésima streams, and east of the river S. Nicodemus and Tòrbido stream. The Aspromonte down quite quickly towards the city of Reggio and the southern Ionian coast: the main block is a acrocoro willing to raggera, with the center of a little distance from the main summit, with 1958metri Montalto, the composition of this block of land is made up primarily of gneiss and micascisti, and then from clay, sand and conglomerate of various geological periods. This particular composition has made sure that the area around all'Aspromonte was one of the most subject to earthquakes due all'assestamento interior of the mountain. Once the Aspromonte was covered by a thick and continuous forest, which has suffered numerous cuts through, even if today we tend to rimboscare the brulli ridges of the mountains. In more remote areas dell'Aspromonte where you feel the most beneficial influence of the sea, there are extensive citrus crops, fruit trees in general, grape, in the hilly area, especially towards the Tyrrhenian coast, is widespread vines, olive trees, chestnut trees, fruit trees. The threshold rocky, known as the Isthmus of Squillace, approximately 30 km wide, consisting of Tirreno dall'addentrarsi and Ionian respectively in the Gulf of St. Eufemia and the Squillace, divides the Sila, in the north, the south Serre. The Serre is a vast region to the Highlands, with a conformation to steps, sometimes interrupted by dossoni high as Mount Pecoraro, 1423 meters, Mount Crocco of 1268 meters, and several others among these mountains are open basins, to a certain extent, such as Serra of Clairvaux. The area, with its favourable possibilities, is noticeably inhabited, especially if you do more than any other region of offering better conditions for agricultural crops, addensa population, while the slopes of Serre degrading have a low density . In Calabria, a region where the orographic profile is very troubled and even more pronounced because of the shape of the same region, close and elongated, open plains brief closed by mountains on the ground and having to vent, on the other hand, to the sea. The largest of these plains is <<The Plains>> par excellence, an irregular pentagon that overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea north of the river Messina, with an area of about 260 square kilometres to the east of the closed circle of mountains dell'Appennino Calabrese. Its formation is due to a phenomenon lifting seabed of the Gulf of Gioia, consisting of alluvial deposits: for this reason mainly, and also for the action associated climate and moisture coming from the nearby sea, << Piana>> enjoys un'altrafertilità; is grown mainly olives, which really reaches dimensions, a single plant can produce up to 150 litres of oil. The olive tree is not only growing, in fact growing vineyards, giving excellent quality wine, as zibibbo and tear, and at the coast citrus fruit. This flat so rich and fertile, until early century, due to abandonment, was reduced to a giant acquitrino, productive and brought malaria; to begin the work of reclamation, then continued up to almost our day, was the Marquis Vito Nunziante, which, having entered into a contract with the town of Rosarno, which was among the most interested in remediation, for several years he worked for the rehabilitation and development of the vast region. The major centres located in the "flat" Rosarno, Taurianova, Cittanova, Polistena arising on the terraces towards the mountains, at an altitude ranging to 200 to 400 meters, and Palmi, Gioia Tauro, St. Ferdinand in the proximity of the coast , affacciantisi the Gulf of Gioia. Another extended plain Calabrese, but this situated in the northernmost part of the region, is formed by the river Crtaie its tributary Coscile; the Crati, rising from Cosenza, form this point has been a narrow valley but it is only the latest stretch of his flowing into flat land and open is the Plains of Sibari, renowned in antiquity for soil fertility and abundance of fruit. However, in times to us neighbours, the plain of the Crati was in a deplorable state of malaria that mieteva many victims, this was partly due to hydraulic disorder, as rivers, dragging with them a considerable quantity of alluvial material, tended to raise your bed and straripare on the plains. In this state of affairs has also provided here with intense remediation works which have improved the economic situation of people, the plain can be considered today as an area of the most bearing of the entire region.