Strait of Messina where is located?

The Strait of Messina in Italy separates the island of Sicily from the peninsula. In ancient times it was called the Strait of Scylla and Charybdis. But why did the navigators call him that? As you know, this name appeared as a warning about the awesome monsters that lived nearby with the strait. What else do we know about this amazing place? About the origin of the name, secrets and mysteries of the Strait of Messina, we will describe in this publication.

Who was Scylla?

In accordance with the legends Scylla was a beautiful Sicilian. Many rich suitors wooed to her, but all of them were refused. But one day the following happened: she decided to take a dip in the sea when she was seen by Glaucom. He was the son of Poseidon himself, because Glaucus was also a sea god - half fish and half human. He immediately woke up to Scylla passionate feelings, in which he wanted to confess her, but the girl was frightened of his unusual appearance and rushed to run. Therefore, Glaucus had to ask the wizard Kirke for help. He wanted her to give him a little spellbinding potion for Scylla.

But Kirke loved Glaucus, so she was offended by his choice in favor of an ordinary mortal girl. This prompted her to replace the love spell with another mixture that she poured into the water near the spring on the shore, where often went to swim after the sea Scylla. When the beauty came into the water of the spring, I realized that beside it there were frightening muzzles of dogs with a grin and bare teeth in open mouths. She was seized by fear, and she tried to go ashore, but the monsters rushed after her, shaking their terrible heads with snake necks. It took only a few seconds, and they remained forever on Scilla's feet. The girl was in utter despair, after which she had to rush into the sea water and swim away from her native places. There she managed to find a lonely cave in the same strait, where she lived and Charybdis. In this rock she stayed, and the ships that passed by her became something of a kind of terrible tribute to her.

History of Charybdis

Charybdis, like Scylla, was not a monster from the very beginning. It was a carnal being, but of divine origin. A girl named Kharibda loved to steal from a young age, and yet she was characterized by a terrible insatiability. Once she stole several red cows from the hero of Hercules, which he took from a giant called Herion, and then ate them. As punishment, Zeus had to transform the insatiable Charybdis into a sea funnel. It has become a whirlpool off the Calabrian coast, which can tighten any object that is near them.

The width and depth of the strait

In the narrowest northern part, where the Strait of Messina is flowing, the width reaches only a mark of 3.15 kilometers. In the same area, there are other minimum indicators. Here, the Strait of Messina, whose depth can reach up to a kilometer, for example, sags to small marks from 80 to 120 meters. From these places it gradually becomes larger towards the north and increases at a high rate in the southern part. About 500 meters and more than 2 kilometers near Taormina.

Strait research

Who taught the Greek navigators to sail for Messina, is not known exactly. However, there are suggestions that this was influenced by experience, which accumulated for several generations. Ancient historian Polybius, this skill was attributed to one of the deities, the patron of the wind, called Aeolus. And the ancient scientist said that his nature was human. Aeolus, he believed, studied the behavior of the ebb and flow in a perfect way. So, the waves that came from different sides interacted, which contributed to the appearance of a large number of water funnels. Therefore, the water area in this area was dangerous for ships.

In accordance with modern research, the Messina Strait, where the awesome place of ancient seamen is located, passes where the seas are joined in opposition. Although the indices of the difference are small (about thirty centimeters), they can still lead to dangerous consequences. Especially unpleasant for seafarers is the current, which is called ascending. The dense masses of the Ionian Sea tend to the north. Because of this, the less dense Tyrrhenian water recedes and returns to its native basin. Moreover, a very large volume of ionic water collides in a narrow "saddle". Therefore, there is a vertical sea level fluctuation and frightening funnels, the speed of which can reach up to twenty kilometers per hour. For ships of the ancient Greeks, this mark was absolutely insurmountable. Clearly, for them, these places were inhabited by terrible monsters, "killing" ships.

Modernity and the Straits of Messina

Of course, as of today, ships can already, without fear, pass through the strait. Moreover, Messina is not so dangerous even for humans. In the summer of 2009, the strait was overcome by swimming in the narrowest part by a boy of eight years old named Rosolino Cannio. At the same time he had to spend on it only about an hour. However, as before, the Strait of Messina, the photo of which you will see below, can cause trouble both to man and ships.

Bridge over Messina

The fact that Sicily does not have a stable and regular connection with mainland Italy is considered to be one of the reasons why the island is economically more backward than the rest of the country. This prompted people for centuries to try to solve this problem. It is clear that the island needs to be connected with the peninsula with the help of a bridge. As early as the nineteenth century, when Italy was united, in 1866, A. Kottrau, the famous engineer who built such structures, received an order for the development of his project. It was received from the ministry, which controls public works. And only in 2008 the final version of the project was approved. Its cost was about 4 billion euros. The purpose of the bridge provides for the movement of both cars and trains. The length of the structure should be more than three kilometers, and the length in the central span is 3.3 km. It will be suspended using pylons, whose height will reach about 376 meters above sea level. It was assumed that the work on the construction of the bridge will begin in 2010.

Messinskaya power line

In the 50-ies of the last century through the Strait of Messina built a power line (220 kilovolts). Pylons of transmission lines are considered to be the highest in the whole world. Despite the fact that the line was subsequently replaced by an underwater cable, the pipes were preserved and today are something of a local attraction that is of interest to tourists.