Ceramic Lava Artwork | The Artist | Events | The Artwork | Photo Gallery | Etna | Catania | Contact Us
Etna Photo Gallery
Mount Etna (Mongibello)
|
Citizens of Catania are used to living in the company of Mount Etna.
Its presence creates a combination unique in Europe: in less the two hours drive you can go from swimming at the warm beaches of Catania to skiing in the snowy top of Mount Etna. To find a similar combination one has to travel all the way to Japan.
Mount Etna's name means 'I burn' and derives from the Greek 'aitne', from 'aitho'. It is also known as Mongibello, which literally means Mount Mountain from the Italian 'mon' which means mount, and the Arabic 'gebel' which means mountain.
|
|
Mount Etna's height, as with all volcanoes, varies through the years, some of the recorded values being shown in the graph opposite.
Before 1800 fallow deer, roe deer, wolves and porcupines lived on Mount Etna, along with the nowadays rarely met foxes and martens. The volcano is today mostly populated with rabbits, hares and, in the lower altitudes, partridges. Where the lava is still very young, ladybirds are the main creatures to be found.
Mount Etna is the tallest volcano in Europe and also one of the most active.
