Tortolì

There were two Sulci in Sardinia, and this is the forgotten one. The Phoenicians arrived here in the seventh century before Christ and founded Sulci Tirrenica, on the route that led from Africa to the mouths of the Rhône; Pliny counted eighteen oppida on the island, and among them Ettore Pais recognised the Sulci of the east coast as well, distinct from the more famous Sulki of Sant'Antioco. The confusion between the two still lasts, and for certain ancient episodes historians cannot say which of them is meant. Something of the harbour survives: in 1988, dredging the lagoon of Tortolì, large squared blocks came up that were probably its foundations.

Its importance depended on a stretch of sea that frightened sailors. A little to the north lie the Montes Insani, the mad mountains, and whoever sailed the eastern route touched Sulci either just before them or just after. During the second Punic war a fleet of fifty new quinqueremes, bound for Africa to join Scipio, was almost entirely destroyed there by a storm; in 397 after Christ Stilicho's expedition against Gildo was scattered at the same point, and some ships saved themselves by sheltering at Sulci. The coast, meanwhile, is red: a crest of porphyry runs from capo Bellavista until it enters the sea, and it is the same one that made the rocks of Arbatax.