Lampedusa e Linosa

Lampedusa e Linosa is Italy's southernmost commune, three islands in the Strait of Sicily that form the Pelagie archipelago: Lampedusa, Linosa and the uninhabited Lampione. Lampedusa lies 220 kilometers southwest of Agrigento and 260 southeast of Tunis, on the Lampedusa Plateau, a structural high of the African continental shelf separated from Sicily by sea no deeper than 120 meters. The two main islands are geological opposites. Lampedusa is white Cretaceous limestone, rising to 133 meters at the Sole Tree on the northwest side, with the Spiaggia dei Conigli on the south coast, a protected reserve and one of the last regular Mediterranean nesting sites of the loggerhead sea turtle. Linosa is black basalt with three ancient craters, the southernmost active volcano of the Italian system, with dark cliffs and small coves. The flora and fauna match North Africa. Since 1998 the Lampedusa reception centre has been the main European entry point for migrants crossing from Libya and Tunisia, and the island has held that role through every Mediterranean migration cycle of the past twenty-five years.