Lower Cecilia Cave

Biancavilla – Etna South West
Coordinates: 33S 496770E 4174540N (Utm Wgs84) | 37°43'05.2″N 14°57'48.3″E
ELEVATION: 1950 m
Development: <30 m total.
Nearest known location: Monte Scavo – Monte Denza
Exploration: Easily accessible and visitable with just lights and helmet.
Taken over by Dario & Damiano Teri (on 02.07.2019)
The Nd was communicated to the relevant municipality
This is a cave that is not very large overall but has a very interesting morphology thanks to the lava flow channel on which it develops, generated by the fracture located further south-west of the 1610 eruption. A curiosity in this regard. Some maps (igm) mark the lavas in the area with the date 1607, but the latest geological map raises doubts about the dating since at the time only one eruption on multiple fractures would have occurred in 1610. Most people are familiar with the famous and beautiful Grotta degli Archi generated by this eruption. This cave was probably used as a shelter or watering hole by the shepherds of the area as an old horseshoe was found inside, probably belonging to a mule and left on site by the writer. This theory is supported by the fact that the cave can be reached by an ancient mule track that connected it to the “small” Monte Scavo, unfortunately recently interrupted by the lava of February 2015. From a morphological point of view, the cave develops on a beautiful channel on which two different galleries open, one of which is narrower. The presence of lava flow streaks and also numerous lava pendants (also improperly called remelting stalactites) is reported. Notes: In addition to the position of the cave, which does not appear to be listed in any available source, the track of the path has also been reported on the Open Street Map, which is also not marked, very interesting. However, it is certainly not an unknown cave, at least in the past, but little known, even if it is likely that it could be known and named in dialect by veteran craftsmen (mainly shepherds) of the area. However, there were no cairns, neither along the mule track nor other recent signs in the cave, therefore for easy cataloguing the name in question was given, dedicated to the daughter and sister of the person who discovered it.
[osm_map_v3 map_center=”37.7184,14.9653″ zoom=”14.9″ width=”100%” height=”450″ post_markers=”1″ ]
Dario Teri July 2 2019 Unseen & Little-Known Etna Caves No Responses