The Giara Park

The name Giara, Sa Jara, probably comes from the Latin glarea (gravel), referring to the widespread stoniness that characterizes the surface of the plateau. The Pliocene basalt Giara plateau (500-600 m a.s.l.) surrounded by 11 municipalities, covers about 45 km² of territory. Steep crags of dark lava rock, from which roaring waterfalls sometimes cascade, surround this vast plateau, whose surprisingly flat top is embellished by the striking water features of the paulis (Pauli Tramatzu, Pauli Maiori, etc.) with their splendid, whitish spring blooms of water buttercups. The steep slopes of the Giara, lush with verdant forests and Mediterranean scrub, are molded in the soft marly marine sediments of the Miocene, in places incised by steep seasonal water channels. On these slopes, frequent springs (funtanas or mitzas) often originate from the infiltration of rainwater along the latticework of diaclasis across the summit basaltic rock. Due to its remarkable landscape-naturalistic values, the Giara Plateau has been included among the nine natural parks provided for by Regional Law No. 31 of 1989