Platani (river)

Course of Platani

Sicanian mountain Template: Infobox River / QUELLKOORDINATE_fehlt

Template: Infobox River / Obsolete

The Platani is a river in Sicily. He has two headwaters in the mountains Sicanian: One rises near Santo Stefano Quisqina and crosses the area of Castronovo di Sicilia, the other springs in the neighboring municipality Lercara Friddi.

Accordingly, it is also called Platani of Castronovo and Platani of Lercara Friddi. They flow together on the border of the province of Agrigento and the Province of Palermo.

The combined Platani then still flows 84 km to the sea. It traverses the province of Agrigento and at times forms the border between the provinces of Agrigento and Caltanissetta. He opens the nature reserve of Capo Bianco near the archaeological sites of Heraclea Minoa in the Strait of Sicily.

History

In ancient times the Platani had the name Halykos. This is ancient Greek and means salted or salty. A name of the river, as he long stick over salt deposits flows. Even today he is called by the locals the salty river ( fiume salato ) - in contrast to its inflow Turvoli, which is called the sweet river ( fiume dolce ).

The Halykos formed from 338 BC for a long time, the boundary between the spheres of interest of the Carthaginians and the Greeks. They had also stationed fleets. At that time, large parts of the Platani were navigable and the river was full of fish. Later, the river level was infested with malaria. Today, the areas are exempt from malaria.

Due to the sulfur mining in the area of Cammarata, the river was very stressed with environmental toxins. Since closure of the sulfur mines flora and fauna recover increasingly.

Inflows

• Fiume Gallo d'Oro
• Fiume Belici
• Fiume Barbarigo
• Vallone Tumarrano
• Vallone della Terra
• Fiume Turvoli
• Vallone Gassegna
• Vallone Garifo
• Vallone Caculigommero
• Vallone del Palo
• Vallone Sparti Prenti
• Vallone Morella