Circeo - Italy

Circeo

Monte Circeo or Cape Circeo  is a mountain remaining as a promontory that marks the southwestern limit of the former Pontine Marshes. Although a headland, it was not formed in the same way as headlands are usually formed, by erosion of the coast, but is a remnant of the orogenic processes that created the Apennines. The entire coast of Lazio, in which the mountain and the marsh are located, was a chain of barrier islands formed on a horst, made part of the mainland by sedimentation of the intervening graben.

Monte Circeo, as it is sometimes also called in Italian, is located on the southwest coast of Italy, about 100 km (62 mi) south/southeast of Rome, near San Felice Circeo, on the coast between Anzio and Terracina. At the northern end of the Gulf of Gaeta, it is a ridge of limestone about 5 km (3.1 mi) long by 1.5 km (0.93 mi) wide at the base, running from east to west and surrounded by the sea on all sides except the north. The land to the north of it is 15 m (49 ft) above sea level, while the summit of the promontory is 541 m (1,775 ft). While the headland is quite steep and hilly, the land immediately to the east of it is very low-lying and swampy. Most of the ancient swamp has been reclaimed for agriculture and urban areas. The mountain, the coastal zone as far north as Latina, including the only remaining remnant of the swamp, and two of the Pontine Islands offshore, Zannone and Ponza, have been included in Circeo National Park.

Circeo: map