VALLE DI LANAITHO

Lanaitho is a wonderful valley located near Oliena (NU). Coming from the town the only road (far to be clear and well marked) that lead to your destination comes from north direction. Lanaitho, hidden by the Supramonte of Orgosolo, Oliena and Dorgali, has an archaic charm and a unique wild beauty. Thanks to its hidden position, the imposing karst system (caves, caverns) and the fertility of the valley, the ecosystem of Lanaitho gave shelter to man since prehistoric times. The naturalistic and archaeological interest of the valley is enormous, a concert of wonders, we will find nuraghic villages of Carros and Tiscali (which we will visit with the excursion), giants' tombs, the Corbeddu caves, the Guano cave and the Sa Oche caves.

Our hike begins a few hundred meters from the caves of 'Sa Oche', we are along the eastern side of the valley, still in the territory of Oliena. So let's go walking in a path that seems wide but that we will be soon into the Mediterranean scrub, forcing us to maintain the orientation, paying attention to skirting the bed of a river. On our right we can admire the Supramonte di Oliena, while from time to time we will find some magnificent junipers that spring from the rock. We push ourselves to an ever greater height and so with it the slope increases, the magnificent landscape remains to refresh the heart, so from nothing there appears a huge rift in the rock that seems to bring us into the night of the times .. close to nuragic civilization.

In remote times this karstic point had inside a cave dug by the spring waters. As a result of violent earthquake movements, part of the Tiscali vault collapsed, leaving part of the cave to resurface in the open air. A show that mother nature gives us. The importance of a natural monument joins the archaeological charm, the karst dolina offered an exceptional natural shelter to the ancient inhabitants of Sardinia. The settlement of Tiscali is in fact made up of hundreds of rooms and storages distributed in the north and south-west of the cone, some walls lean directly on the rock face. The structures have a rectangular, quadrangular, circular and elliptical plan. The walls, of modest thickness, are made of abundant limestone and finished with mortar. The archaeological investigations have allowed the recovery of artifacts dating back to the Nuraghic period, which can be dated throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. The human presence on the site can be dating back to the Roman age, there are in fact Dressel 1 amphorae that herald a Romanization that, little by little, determined the abandonment of the site. It's time to move into the karstic conoid to discover the wonderful Tiscali ... inside we'll see how mother nature decided to put a further signature on her sculpture, creating a sort of 'window that look the world'.