Sinis Peninsula

Description

In the Protected Area of the Sinis Peninsula and of the Island of Mal di Ventre, established in 1997 and stretching for approximately 26,000 hectares in the territory of Cabras, a collection of land and lake settings slope gently towards beaches and cliffs.

To the south, the coastal strip from the promontory of Capo San Marco stretches, with the rocks and soft sand of San Giovanni di Sinis and the quartz sand of Mari Ermi, Is Arutas and Maimoni, as far as the cliffs of Su Tingiosu. Slightly below Capo Mannu, which is the northernmost limit, you will find the Salt Pans and the beach of Putzu Idu. The quartz grains of sand of the 'coastal pearls' come from the decomposition of the rocks: a process that began 600 million years ago in Mal di Ventre. Sandy seabeds and expanses of seagrass are populated by fish, molluscs and crustaceans and shipwrecks from every age: Roman and Spanish ships from the 20th century, among which a cargo ship 36m long that sank between 80 and 50 B.C.E. with two thousand ingots of lead.

In the nearby inland area, the sand dunes give way to the Stagni di Cabras, a swampy ecosystem populated by the greater flamingo.

At the southernmost extremity of the Sinis is Tharros: it was a Nuragic village, a Phoenician colony, a Carthaginian port, an administrative centre in the Byzantine age and the first capital of the Giudicato of Arborea.

The museum of Cabras houses the statues of the Giants of Mont'e Prama (8th century B.C.E).

At the beginning of September the Hypogeum of San Salvatore is the destination of a unique procession the Corsa degli Scalzi (Barefoot Race).

Position on map