Gulf of Naples

The Gulf of Naples (Italian: Golfo di Napoli), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9.3 mi) gulf located along the south-western coast of Italy (province of Naples, Campania region). It opens to the west into the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered on the north by the cities of Naples and Pozzuoli, on the east by Mount Vesuvius, and on the south by the Sorrento Peninsula and the main town of the peninsula, Sorrento. The Peninsula separates the Gulf of Naples from the Gulf of Salerno, which includes the Amalfi Coast.

Gulf of Naples at Naples, with Mount Vesuvius on the horizon.
Regional map of the Gulf of Naples.
Topographic map of the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius
Map of the Gulf of Napoli 1754

The islands of Capri, Ischia and Procida are located in the Gulf of Naples.[1] The area is a tourist destination, with the seaside Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum at the foot of Mount Vesuvius (destroyed in the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius), along the north coast.

Along with the island of Ischia and gulfs of Pozzuoli and Gaeta,[2][3] local waters are home to varieties of whales and dolphins including fin and sperm whales.[4][5][6]

History

It is said that the Roman emperor Caligula built a bridge of boats across the bay and rode across it in a chariot wearing the armor of Alexander the Great.[7]

The Gulf of Naples hosted the sailing events for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.

According to information from Mario Scaramella, twenty nuclear torpedo sea mines were alleged by the International Atomic Energy Agency to have been laid on 10 January 1970, by a Soviet November class attack submarine, in the Gulf of Naples at the time of the Cold War to destroy or deny access to the US Sixth Fleet; the mines are believed to still be on the seabed.[8]

References
  1. Gulf of Naples islands Archived 2011-07-13 at the Wayback Machine (PDF).
  2. D'Alelio D.. 2016. Laggiu soffia! Cronaca di una “caccia” al capodoglio nelle acque tra Ischia e Ventotene - Leviatani, nascosti e preziosi. The Scienza Live. Retrieved on March 29, 2017
  3. 2016. Orca avvistata
  4. Mussi B.. Miragliuolo A.. Monzini E.. Battaglia M.. 1999. Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) feeding ground in the coastal waters of Ischia (Archipelago Campano) (pdf). The European Cetacean Society. Retrieved on March 28, 2017
  5. Maio N.. Maione V.. Sgammato R.. 2016. First record of a Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski, 1781) in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Cetacea Balaenopteridae) (pdf). The Biodiversity Journal. 7 (1). pp.33–38
  6. balena nel golfo di pozzuoli on YouTube
  7. Scullard, H. From the Gracchi to Nero. p. 284.
  8. "Soviet Navy left 20 nuclear warheads in the Bay of Naples", The Independent.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.