Pantellería

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and fruit are cultivated on the fertile ground.

History

Man came to the island back in prehistoric times, and made use of its obsidian deposits. Historical evidence exists in the form of sesi, low burial towers of unhewn stone blocks near the Neolithic defensive settlement of Mursia. In the seventh century B.C. the island belonged to the Phoenicians, and graves from that period can be seen in the Valle di Monastero. The Romansconquered Pantellería in 217 B.C. and named it Cossyra. Later came the Vandals, Byzantines and, in the early eighth century, Arabs. Characteristic of the latter are the dammusi, cubiform houses with strong walls and domed roofs. In 1123 the Normans superseded the Saracens, later came the Turks and finally pirates. In 1860 Pantellería, like Sicily, became part of the Kingdom of Italy and was fortified in the Second World War. In 1943, after weeks of bombardment, American paratroopers took the island, the first Italian land to fall to the Allies.