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SALENTO
AND SEA
 Salento
and sea
The
Salento is the last corner of Apulia and is with no doubt one of the most
beautiful places in all the Mediterranean sea thank to its position that
separates the east zone  from the west zone. On the east side there is the
Adriatic sea, on the west side there is the Ionian sea. Along the coastline
there are either long sandy shores and cliffs that drops sheer to the beach.
From a biological point of view there is a great variety of living species in
particular in some areas such as Porto
Cesareo, the coastline between Otranto
and Leuca, and the nature park of the Cesine. The peninsula of the Salento has a
coastline of more or less 300 km, it extends over a surface of 7000 sq. Km and
it lies from NW to SE. According to popular belief the two seas meet near the
Punta Ristola (39°47'18 '' N of latitude and 18°20'48 '' E of longitude) but
from a geographic point of view this happens near Punta Palascia (Otranto) 40°06'22''
N of latitude and 18°31'22'' E of longitude. This point is considered the South
part of the Adriatic sea because here the distance with the coasts of Albany are
at the shortest (75 km). The Ionian
coast goes from Taranto to Santa Maria di
Leuca, the channel of Otranto goes
from here to the homonym town and we call Adriatic coast from Otranto to Torre
Guaceto (Br).
In
the Salento there are more or less as many sandy as rocky shores. Mainly we can  say that the West coast is sandy and the East coast is rocky. The coastline from
Otranto to Santa Maria di Leuca is very interesting and we can find cliffs also
100 m high and several beautiful and famous caves
in particular the Zinzulusa Cave. The sandy shores on the two coasts of
the Salento have different origins as we can guess from the structure of the
grains. The sand is very fine near the Alimini Lakes on the Adriatic coast,
while it is coarser and rich of small shells on the Ionian coast in particular
near Porto Cesareo. The main reasons for the difference of the sands are two:
Firstly, in the Salento there are no rivers that carry the small sand grain to
the sea as it happens in the north Adriatic sea for example with the River Po
and the sand shores of Rimini and Riccione.  The second reason has to do with the
Ionian current which goes anticlockwise and takes the sediments of the rivers of
Lucania towards the other side of the Gulf of Taranto. How where then those
sandy shores created? The sand of the Alimini Lakes comes from the mouth of the
rivers in the northern Adriatic and the smallest grains are carried here from
the descendant currents. This kind of sand is very fine and the wind blow it
towards the hinterland creating high dunes up to 10-12 metres. The plants and
the vegetation of the dunes are important to prevent erosion of these areas. The
sand of the west coast was created by organogenesis, that means it was made up
of parts of living sea creatures and coarse sediments. Taking a handful of sand
we can still distinguish the small shells and this kind of sand. Even if the
sand grains are bigger, there are a lot of dunes and also the same long shores
as on the other coast. The rocky coast has mainly a karstic origin. From Taranto
to Porto Cesareo we can follow and endless sandy shore, from here to Santa  Maria
al Bagno the coastline is made of low rocks then all the coast is sandy up to
Torre Vado but not near Gallipoli. The coast becomes again rocky in Torre Vado
and it reaches Otranto becoming higher and higher. From
Otranto to Brindisi the
coast is sandy apart from the areas of Torre dell’Orso and S. Foca. Other
particular areas are the small islands not far from the shore and the humid
areas behind the dunes. The only small island in the Salento is the island of
Sant’Andrea along the coast of Gallipoli which has maintained his wild
vegetation being a military base. There
is a great number of coastal lagoons. Usually they are small closed basins
narrowly connected to the sea. They contain brackish
water and they are natural oases of great importance. The general situation of
those  oases is very positive because they are not polluted by farms even if in
the past there was some unauthorized buildings. To prevent all kinds of
pollution all the area will soon be protected by the law. Two areas have been
chosen for this purpose: one is on the Adriatic coast near Torre Guaceto
(Brindisi) and a second one near Porto
Cesareo on the Ionian coast. A third one
will be created in the future for the protection of the coastline that goes from
Otranto to Santa Maria di
Leuca. Other interesting areas are the Island of
Sant’Andrea and Punta Pizzo. In
the Cesine there is a naturalistic oasis that is already working thank to the
WWF and was declared natural area of international interest.
Costal
lagoons
A
coastal lagoon is a kind of marsh situated between the dry land and the sea and
usually separated from the sea by a narrow strip of small dunes. Marshland was
usually considered unhealthy because it was the perfect habitat for some insects
that could carry contagious diseases as malaria mosquitoes. These areas were
often reclaimed  through networks of canals to help the change of the water as we
can still see near Torre Pali along the Ionian coast. The characteristic
features of those areas are a low rock coast and a flux of fresh water from the
hinterland. As we said before, in the Salento there are no rivers but in the
underground there are huge deposits of fresh rain water due to the karstic
origin of the rocks. The water of those subterranean deposit is not still but
moves slowly toward the sea where it creates several subterranean springs with
icy water that can easily be seen
going snorkeling. In the sandy coast those springs create a kind of marsh where
fresh water can mix to the water of the sea. This mixture can change the
characteristics of the water in particular the salinity. The water of those
marshes has a kind of salinity that is half way between sea salinity and fresh
water. The salinity of those brackish water is about
17 ‰ (17 gr. of salt per liter of water) while the average sea salinity
is 37‰ and that of fresh water is close to 0. Since the water of those marshes
is usually not shallower than 2m and it can be changed only by tide or sea storm
we can understand how temperature, salinity and oxygen are main factors to study
the living creatures of the marshes. Only few living organisms survive in the 
marshes and they are mainly animals. Some of them spend their lives in the
marshes while others, as those fish that can bear a change of salinity, live in
the marshes only during their youth because there is great food availability and
because they can find a shelter against the predators that live in the open
sea. The tidal wave carries the larvae in those lagoons, usually between
autumn and spring, they live here during the summertime then return in the open
sea in the following winter. Several fish come to live in those humid areas and
many of them are also popular as gastronomic specialities as the dentex(Dentex
dentex), giltheads (Sparus aurata), white breams (Diplodus vulgaris, Diplodus
sargus), bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and the common gray mullets (Mugil
cephalus). People has learned to exploit those basins for natural aquiculture.
In those small ecological system,
the change of water sea and the flux of fresh water from the subterranean
springs provide both nourishment for the living creatures also for  seaweed,
plants, and also benthos clams such as the Pinna nobilis (the biggest in the
Mediterranean sea) , crustaceans and grub eaten by many of the cited fish. Other
animal species in particular migratory birds find in the humid dune areas a
perfect place where to rest and refresh themselves before leaving for their
long-distance flights. The white egret , many species of ducks, the cormorans
and many others can be easily observed by bird-watchers. There are several humid
dune areas in all the Salento: on the Ionian coast we can find them between Torre San Giovanni and Torre Vado, along the Adriatic coast the most interesting
ones are that of the Alimini Lakes (north from Otranto) and the WWF oasis of the
Cesine.
Chemical-physical
characteristics of the sea in the Salento
The main
characteristic of sea water is certainly its salinity which indicates the
quantity of several salts solved in the water. According to salinity there are
several kinds of  water: the average salinity of the sea in the Salento is 38‰
that means 38 gr. of salts per liter of water. Salinity is not constant as it
changes for many reasons. First of all the temperature of the water and then the
presence of water-bearing strata in the subsoil. When the salinity goes down to
17‰ the water is called brackish as at the mouth of the rivers, coastal
lagoons and everywhere the water of the sea mixes with fresh water. The
temperature of the water has great importance because it can influence water
salinity but also the quantity of nourishment and gas solved in the water. As
the temperature rises the relative quantity of those substances lowers
proportionally. Spring and winter
are best seasons for the growing of life because the temperature of the water
reaches is ideal for the  development of several small animals and plants. The
temperature goes from 13-15° C to 30 in summertime. The heat that the sea
concentrate in the summertime can be released in the winter. Summertime in the
Salento is always very warm but winters are mild and spring is a true explosion
of flowers and colors in a way it could hardly be thought of during the summer
heat. Oxygen is vital to the organisms
that live on land but also for those who live in the sea both animal and vegetal
therefore more the sea is oxygenated the more it is full of life. Beside oxygen
other important solved gases: carbonic anhydride that represents the waste gas
of respiration, the nitrogen and
the hydrogen used only by specialized organisms. Besides the salts there are
also countless other substances and particles in the water of the sea.
Sediments, organic drifts and microscopic animals are the  nourishment for
several living species. Many vegetal organisms can transform inorganic
substances in basic organic compounds as sugar and proteins necessary for all
living creatures. Other organisms take their nourishment from organic substances
or from plankton that is made up of microscopic vegetal and animal organisms.
Sunlight is extremely important for the life of all the creatures of the
sea. Vegetable organism need it to make the Chlorophyll Photosynthesis probably
the first engine of life on Earth. The more we go in the depth the more it gets
dark and we can hardly see anything at 100 m depth. Different vegetables can
live at different depths according to how much light they need: we can divide
them in animal that live in the light and others that prefer the darkness  and
are called sciophilous. The last important
characteristic of the sea is its movements: currents, tide and waves. They can
all influence the parameters we have seen as far (temperature, salinity and
density). They assure water replacement, new nourishment for vegetables and food
for animals. We can all see waves and they are created by friction of wind on
the sea surface. Their strength and their dimensions depend on weather
conditions. They cause coast erosion but are essential for the oxygenation of
the water. The long sandy shores of the Salento are slowly being eroded by the
wave movements and several local authorities are planning precautions to prevent
further backing of the coastline. On the Adriatic coast there is a descendant
flow coming from the north. This same current changes direction after Leuca and
flows towards NW in the Gulf of Taranto.
Underwater
life
Sea
environment can be classified in two groups:
·
open
sea
·
benthos
which identifies the seabed and the organisms living on it
The
benthos world is divided in :
·
"Sopralitorale", the
area that lies just above the level of the highest tide. Only  the drops of the
waves can reach those areas and the only inhabitants are small fish and
shellfish.
·
"Mesolitorale", the
area that lies between the top and the bottom of the tide. Even if this area if
often wet and then suddenly dry there are several living species that got used
to living in it. Limpets, acorn shells, crabs, sea anemones and seaweed are very
common in this area.
·
"Infralitorale", the
area underneath the sea level where it is still possible to  find Posidonie or
seaweed, usually up to 30 meters. A typical seaweed is the Cystoseria, the
Acetabularia and also the famous sea lattice. Among the animals of this area we
can certainly remember sea urchins, star fish, sea anemons, shellfish as the
octopus, fish as grey mullets, salpas, and mullets.
·
"Circalitorale",
the last area is
deeper in the sea and is already in the darkness. There are more animals than
vegetables and here in the darkness they are of the brightest kind. Here live
the corals, sponges, lobsters, crawfish, groupers and dentex.
As we
can guess from this short analysis there is a strong link between the
environment  and the species living in it and this is what the scholars call
biocenosis. Studying the sea environment of the sea in the Salento we can notice
several biocenosis but the life system between the sea level and 50 meters
deeper is one of the most interesting. The kind of seabed is one of the factors
that can have great influence on the life of the organisms. In the Salento there
are several kinds of seabed and they are classified in the five following groups:
ü Mobile
seabed
ü
Rocky seabed
ü Coralligenous
seabed
ü Grasslands
of Poseidonia
ü Sea
caves
Mobile
seabed
With this type of classification, we
to mean all those seabed made sediments that are not consolidated. The
absence of firm substrata influences considerably all the benthonic organisms
that live in these surroundings. On
the base of the changing nature and granulometry of the particles we can
distinguish three great categories of mobile depths:
o
Muddy
seabed
o
Sandy
seabed
o Gravel
seabed
From
the point of view of the composition, we can distinguish two type of sediments:
§
Terrigenous, created by the erosion of land and brought into
the sea by rivers, and by streams. This type of sediment can usually be found
near the coasts.
§
Organogenic,
directly created in the sea by the precipitation of skeletal residuals of
planktonic organisms (small organisms that live suspended in the water at the
mercy of the streams), like those calcareous of foraminifera or those siliceous
of radiolarians and diatoms, but by fragments of shells. This type of sediments
forms the so called coral sands; they are far from the coast, near isles and
banks where there is the absence of terrigenous sediments.
The
organisms that live in those surroundings are classified according to dimension
and their adaptation to the habitat:
ü
meiobènthos (from
Greek meion = smaller and benthos = depth), microscopic organisms that live in
interstices among particle of sand, very important because they are food of
bigger animals.
ü
macrobènthos (from
Greek makron = big), all those organisms bigger than 5 mm; some of them live
inside the sediment, others are fixed to the substrate with the help of
specialized organs and others are free to move near the depth looking for food.
When
the sediment is particularly fine and incoherent, the main difficulty is to
anchor. The sessile organisms (that live always anchored to the substrate) have
different organs of anchorage depending on the species; real roots for plants
like Posidonia or Cimodocea,
the peculiar byssus for bivalve
molluscs, like Pinna Nobilis. Other
kinds of sessile animals of this type of depth are sponges, tubicolous
worms (that live in a tube of chitin,
structural substance produced by themselves), like the beautiful Sabella
spallanzani and some echinoderms
(a group of animals covered by thorns like urchins and starfishes) like crinoids
(Antedon mediterranea) with the typical plumose appearance, that
anchor themselves to the sediment using tentacles. The
animals that prefer to become hollow, use this strategy for different scopes: in
order to escape from predators, other are predators themselves and the bigger
part of them live permanently in this condition of concealment. These
animals for example are of different zoological groups, i.e. bristlestar (Ophiotrix
fragilis) among echinoderms, that passively filter water thought thorns
covered by mucus on the little arms that come out from the sand; or bivalve
molluscs very appreciated in our cooking like clams  (Tapes decussates) also filterers. Among fishes, also adaptive to the
surroundings, we find the coloured mullets (Mullus
barbatus) with its characteristic barbells,
a sort of tactile whiskers they use to find small preys; the tongue fish (Solea
sp.) crushed so they can camouflage themselves under the substrate of sand
and the dangerous Trachinus araneus,
with their poisonous prickle used to discourage every attaches. In
Salento mobile seabed is on both side; important for dimensions and biology are,
on the Ionic side, those near Porto Cesareo (area destined to become a National
sea Park), and those near Torre Vado, while on the Adriatic side, all seabed
from Otranto to Torre Guaceto.
Rocky seabed
From
many points of view, this type of depth is surely the richest and most
interesting that the sea of Salento can offer. In many places is possible to
appreciate these wonders of the nature; Porto Selvaggio, Torre Inserraglio o
Santa Caterina on the  “neretina” coast (from Latin Neretum,
of the city of Nardò); other places of the Channel of Otranto, from the most
famous like Leuca, Castro, Porto Badisco,
Otranto to the least famous but
similarly spectacular like Novaglie, Tricase,
Marittima and many other that
deserve a careful visit. Many
characteristics make this seabed so fascinating: just underneath the sea level
there is a multitude of seaweeds. The most evident and famous is the Cystoseira
genre that forms wide dark bushes firmly fixed to the rocks, sometimes
completely emerged during low tide. Among seaweed, there often are many animals
species grouped in dense banks, like mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis), sessile bivalve molluscs or strange
little fishes like the blenny (Parablennius
gattorugine, P. ingognitus), that, even though can freely move, always live
near a cover generally a little hole in the rock. Inside
rocky gorges grow other types of seaweed loving the shade; they are called sciophilous
and together with other
animals, like sponges, they cover with their colours the surface of  rocks. In
illuminated areas but deeper than the previous, there are some seaweed called
peafowl tie (Padina pavonica), with
the shape suggested by the name, or the Acetabularia
acetabulum made of a unique and great cell that can have a length of 3-5 cm.
In the deepest areas
where photosynthesis is not possible, seaweed is gradually replaced by animals. The
list of animals you can meet with this type of depth is enormous; sometimes,
among sessile species, that permanently live on the substrate, it is hard to
distinguish an organism from another, because their relations are so dense that
in a small space we can meet many different species. Often they are filtering
organisms in competition for the space, but sometimes they also take advantage
from this situation. Some
animals can freely move, some move slowly, like urchins and starfishes, and are
called cropper organisms; others, like fish, swim very fast, either to capture
preys or to escape predators.
Coralligenous seabed
With
this word we mean all those structures basically made by calcareous formations
both of seaweed and animals, sessile (anchored to the substrate) and sciophilous
(that prefer shade), that grow either on rocky or mobile seabed. They
are generally optimal health indicators, because they live only in pure
environments. Sometimes they can live also at 130 m depth. In
the Salento this kind of seabed can be found also in a lower  depth, about 10-15
metres which is quite rare for the rest of Mediterranean Sea, where it is found
at about 30 metres. Thanks to the particular geographic position, in the Salento
we can find animal species normally absent in the nearer oriental seas. The
peninsula of Salento is surrounded by the most diversified biocenosis of the
Mare Nostrum; it is everywhere, at different depths, on both sides, from
Casalabate to Leuca and, with some interruptions, until Punta Prosciutto. The
basic organisms are vegetal but they tend to calcify, to harden, giving a
further substratum to many other organisms, especially animals, that grow up
forming real buildings that can shelter other bigger animals. It is like a co
ownership, whose habitations are living structures themselves, growing up and
with the most different shape and dimensions. It
is hard to make a list of the species living in this way. Some of them live also
in other types of depths, but others are typical of these surroundings. One of
the most beautiful and interesting species
are the sea fans, red and yellow (Paramuricea
clavata, Eunicella cavolinii) both very rare in Oriental Mediterranean Sea,
but present in Salento especially in banks far from the coast; the as many
coloured reed sponges (Axinella cannabina)
with which are often combined the yellow polyps of Parazoanthus
axinellae, another animal of the same group of urticant jellyfishes (i.e. Rizostoma
pulmo, Aurelia aurita) that
live in open sea passively carried by stream.
Grasslands of Poseidonia
The
Posidonia (Posidonia oceanica) is a terrestrial plant but it became adapted to
sea life. They have their roots, rhizomes (creeping underground stems that
connect several plants), leaves, flowers
but only in particular periods of the year, fruits and seeds though not every
year. These plants take root on a mobile seabed, from few inches depth until
over 40 meters if the water is considerably clear. When there are favorable  conditions the Posidonia forms some real grasslands that can extend also over
ten square meters. Moreover the leaves have also a remarkable vertical growth
and in the great grassland of Posidonia near Gallipoli the leaves are even 1
meter high. In the Salento you can find them everywhere along the coast, both on
sandy and rocky depths, but always on a mobile seabed.
Walking along some sandy shores, (for instance in Torre Mozza, Torre
vado, on the Ionian side but also near the
WWF oasis of the Cesines) , we can easily guess a Posidonia grassland by
the conspicuous deposits of dead leaves on the shoreline as a consequence of
violent sea storms. This kind of
environment has a remarkable biological importance, not only because it is the
"green lung" of the sea, but above all because it represents a
shelter, a wide net of hideaways for several animal species. Besides it is an
ideal surface for the life and development of sessile organisms, both animals
and plants, which is a strong call for other species. If we want to compare it
with some terrestrial environments, the grassland of Posidonia can be identified
more as a forest of great trees that offer shelter to a lot of other kinds of
animals and plants, rather than to a lawn of green grass as we would say at
first. As forests and woods compact the
underlying ground, so these grasslands strongly stick to the depths with their
rhizomes, they fight coastal erosion and reduce wavy motion they help in
protecting the shore.
Sea caves
We
call sea caves all those structures that are totally or partially submerged by
sea waters. In the Salento there are two
different kinds of caves each with a different origin:
ü Karstic
caves are created by the water eroding calcareous rocks before flowing in the
sea.
ü Sea
caves created by the erosion of the waves or by the action of the salt dissolved
in the sea water.
For
both types of caves it is very interesting to know more about the mineral  constitution of the rocks that form the coast of the Salento. On the whole
territory there are about fifty submerged caves, and as many other have not been
completely explored yet. Many of those caves are very interesting from a
biological point of view but have also an archaeological importance due to the
finds recovered. In many places, in fact, there were a lot of animal fossils of
the rhino or buck that means that they were regularly chased by the prehistoric
populations of these lands when they were sheltered in these ravines. Besides,
manufactured articles of different nature and historical periods have been
found, and this allowed the researchers to have an idea of conditions of life of
these men in the past. Recoveries of this kind are those of
"Grotta del cavallo" (The horse cave) and the cave
"Uluzzo", near S. Caterina, on the Ionian coast and those called
"Prazziche" caves, in the gully of the Ciolo, near Gagliano del
Capo.
No doubt however that the most important recovery is that of 1970 that concerns
the fascinating paintings of  Neolithic age (around 7000 years ago) in the
"Grotta dei cervi" (Bucks'cave) in Porto Badisco, along the coast that
from Santa Cesarea brings to
Otranto; there is no public admittance to this cave in
order to preserve the integrity of the paintings. From a naturalistic point of
view, the most interesting caves in the Salento, is the "Zinzulusa"
cave in Castro or "Grotta delle Corvine" in Torre Uluzzo, on the coast
of Nardò, the caves of the Ciolo in
Gagliano del Capo on the coast that from
Leuca it
brings to Otranto. The sea caves can be
classified by their position on sea level. Some caves are completely outside the
sea and can easily be seen from the sea or from the coast. Others are completely
submerged with the sea  water and their openings in the rocky wall are also 50 meters depths.
However they all get darker and darker as we move inside because only the
sunlight makes them brighter. The light progressively degrades and disappears
entirely around 130 meters from the sea surface; in the caves sunlight
disappears progressively, but on a horizontal direction, toward the inside of
the hollow, at about ten meters from the mouth. This characteristic has a
remarkable importance in the distribution of the living organisms that populate
such environments. Here we cans study those behaviors that normally happen to
notable depth, or do not occur at all which makes the species living in these
environments very exclusive. The organisms living in the caves do not move as in
open water, according to the gravity, but they
 depend on the riptides coming in and out of the cave. In those environments then
there is a strong classification according to the different characteristics of
the section of cave they live in. We can easily distinguish two kinds of animal
groupings, those typical of half-darkness zones, mainly sponges and antozois
(from the Greek antos = flower, animal organisms similar to a flower, for
instance the anemone or Anemonia sea sulcata) and those of the dark zones, in
which some kind of worms and different shellfishes predominate, those are almost
always blind and almost with a transparent aspect. Some of them live in some
caves of Salento from which they often take their name, as for instance the
prawn Salentinella gracillima. The
first group is typical of the entrance of the cave, that is usually in shade;
while the second kind is characteristic of the most inside and dark  part, where
there is no light. Because of the lack of light, there are only a few vegetable
organisms and you can find them often within the first meters after the mouth
where they are able to develop the chlorophyll photosynthesis. The darkest zones
are colonized only by extremely specialized organisms, they can survive only for
their alimentary strategies and however they depend upon the nourishment from
outside both in direct way, as it happens in the case of many shrimps which
find their nourishment outside the cave and go out during the night, or
for indirect action as that of the filters, that withdraw the organic substances
suspended in water and transported passively by the riptide toward the inside of
the cave. A very important action
in this complex system of transport of the energy, from the outside toward the
inside is also played by detritus eaters organisms that take nourishment from
fragments of organic organisms and from the decomposition of  animal and
vegetable organisms by a series of destroyer bacteria. This kind of food network
is typical of deep sea environments, abysmal and is very difficult to study
because of the elevated depth, therefore also for this reason these environments
need careful studies and a particular safeguard and respect from everybody.
The most known cave of Salento is certainly the Zinzulusa, a few
kilometers northward Castro, along the coast that brings to
Santa Cesarea. The
entrance is almost entirely emerged and it opens in one of the most beautiful
parts of the coast, next to a huge cliff and it almost sinks on the sea.
From the outside we can see the
comfortable platforms that allow a calm and fascinating visit to whoever wants
to enjoy this wonder of nature. The Zinzulusa, as a lot of other caves in the
Salento coasts, was formed by an intense erosive action, essentially caused by
the wavy motion and by salinity, and from continuos karstic activity, typical of
this part of Italy. Its name probably derives from the dialect word
"zinzuli" (hanging rags) and it refers to the frame of stalactites
above the entrance. The cave is
divided in four sections of different geomorphology: from the atrium you
overcome the first stalagmite, through a burrow that widens then in the Hallway,
on the right of which a little pond called Conca where people found some
fragments dating to  the Neolithic period. Immediately
after the Basin, begins the longest part of the whole cave, the Corridor of
wonders with its spectacular calcareous formations. There it is the
"Trabocchetto", a small mirror of clear water, which is hard to notice
at a first look, surrounded by numerous stalactites and stalagmites with their
own names. The last part of the Corridor is rich in calcareous columns and has
been denominated the Crypt, beyond which there is the Cathedral, a great tall
room up to 24 ms, in which there were about 10 ms of guano (deposit of
excrements of aquatic birds or bats); from here you pass to a little underground
pond called Cocito. Before being known to the great public, the Zinzulusa has
been obviously object of several scientific consignments, that has appraised its
historical, geologic but also ethnologic and above all biological importance.
Those caves are inhabited by several animals. Sea caves are usually  inhabited by
bats even if their presence in the Zinzulusa is slowly decreasing. The
Spelaeomysis bottazzi is a small and almost transparent prawn that has been
living in the Zinzulusa for ages and the habitat of the cave has protected it
from the dangerous changes of the sea outside. Another famous and important
shellfish of the Zinzulusa is the Hadzia diminuita the only one existing in
Italy even if there are two of them in Yugoslavia which underlines the
historical closeness of the two places. The Higginsia ciccaresei is a sponge
that has adapted to sea life in the Mediterranean sea. This specie is very
important because the other sponges are used to living in other kinds of
habitats. This variety of species makes the Zinzulusa the richest cave in the
Salento from a biological point of view. The remains found in the Zinzulusa are
anyway interesting. The cave was inhabited by the men in several ages and all
the remains are in the paleontology Museum of Maglie or in the National museum
of Taranto and other  important ones in Italy.
The
Romanelli cave is surely less spectacular if compared to the Zinzulusa. Its
entry is very simple and is less than 10 m high on the sea level and the inside
of the cave is shorter and less interesting. It has anyway an important
historical background because the first signs of Paleolithic art were found in
this cave and they are the oldest of those age in the whole nation. The objets
found were hand made items and were made of stone and bone. On the walls there
were graffiti of animals and several weapons dating to 13000 or 8000 years ago.
The analysis of the strata inside the cave have helped the scholars to figure
out the environment of the cave and the men living in it. Along the Ionian coast
and especially near the coast of Nardò there are some beautiful underwater
caves. The most famous one is the Corvine Cave which is  named after the fish we
can see going snorkeling. It is near Torre Uluzzo south from Torre Inserraglio.
It was discovered in 1987 by a group of spelaeologists from Nardò and it is
still today a useful exercise for those who want to learn underwater spelaeology. Inside the cave it
is possible to meet thousands of Leptosammia pruvotii with its yellow octopus.
The small prawns Mysidacea live in the cave during the day and they go out in
the night to hunt their small preys. Other important caves are Uluzzo cave, near
Santa Caterina and the Horse cave where several remains were found in the past.
In the first there were teeth of human kind and some hand made objects in stone.
The remains of the second cave have helped the scholars to understand the
daylife of the inhabitants. Also near Santa Maria di Leuca there are about 36
sea caves and every one has its characteristic features of form and color and
its historic or archaelogic importance. Leaving from Santa Maria di Leuca we can
go towards the East coast or the West coast following two different routes.
Going towards Punta Ristola we see the Porcinara cave that was surely dug by men
but for this reason is not less important because several remains were found
inside the cave. On the walls there are Greek and Latin inscriptions which have
been studied for a long time by famous specialists. It  could have been a
sanctuary for sailors who used to thank their gods for a good crossing from
Greece. Each part of the cave was dedicated to a god. At the beginning there was
Jupiter and Venus but since the Middle Ages there were also cross signs symbol
of Christian worship. Near Punta Ristola we can visit the Devil’s cave. During
an excavation in 1870 people found several fossil remains. Beyond
the Devil’s Cave going toward west, there is a series of small inlets with the
Ciaffaru Cave, Talatu Cave, Punta Crocodile then the Circle Cave, Mesciu Scianni
Cave, the River cave following with the three Doors Caves which should be
visited. The first is also called Creep Cave or Theatre cave. Stalactites and
stalagmites  create a suggestive atmosphere that the tourist will certainly
appreciate. Less than 40 kms far from those caves there is the Giant’s Cave
named after the remains of huge fossil pachyderms in the walls of the cave.
Bronze coins, bones and fragments of various abjects were also found in this
cave. Going towards San Gregorio we can see two openings in the rocky coast: the
Stall cave and the Rimesa that are wonderful because of the colours of their
walls and for the reflections of the sea. The last cave on the East coast is
Dragon Cave more or less 1 km away from the Marcheddu tower and the homonym
point where it was built in the 16th century. On the second route,
along the East coast, we can instantly admire the stately cliff that drops sheer
to the blue beach. The first thing we see are the cazzafri, small caves that
become interesting in particular at the sunset. Next to them the is the Morigio
cave probably named after the moors that used the cave before attacking the
area. After Punta Meliso we can find the Terradico cave, the Ortocupo Cave,
Porrano cave and Verdusella caves. The Chasm Cave has wonderful effects of
colors then still further there is the Giuncacchia Cave, the cave of the two
stones, and other small  caves as the cave of the Well, the cave of the Books,
the Grotticelle, li Giardine and the Galategghiu Cave. The Well Cave also known
as Vucca de lu puzzu is famous because of its water that looks like a kind of
magic mirror of icy water. The inside of the cave is stately and still inhabited
by bats. There are also small animal bones that testify that men used to live
here. Finally, the Cave of the
Ciolo is the longest of the Salento and inside there was a small beach where
monk seals used to live and look after its pup. One of
the last seals was photographed in 1979 and nowadays they live only along
the coasts of Turkey and North Africa but we can still hope that those beautiful
and fascinating animals will come back to live on our shores.
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