Salso River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The River Salso,[1] also known as the Imera Meridionale (Himera in Antiquity), is a river of Sicily. It rises in the Madonie Mountains and, traversing the provinces of Enna and Caltanissetta, flows into the Mediterranean at the western end of the Gulf of Gela at the seaport of Licata, in the Province of Agrigento. Its small deltaic system there is dominated by marine processes rather than fluvial ones. It is a seasonal torrent, with brief but violent floods during the winter rains (from November to February), and all but dry in summer droughts. In November 1915 the iron bridge across the river's mouth collapsed during floods, and 119 people were swept away in the flood and lost.[2] The Salso, which is the longest river of Sicily (144 km, 89 miles), has a drainage basin area of about 2122 km² (819 mi²).
The river's historically changeable meanders across the low coastal plain have been artificially channeled as part of the Canale di Sicilia, and the marshes drained for agriculture. Until the late nineteenth century it had two distributory channels, the second debouching 5 km to the west. The mouth of the Salso has been advancing during historical times, and wind and wave formerly distributed its sand and silt to the beaches of the Gulf of Gela.[2]
The Salso was of importance in Antiquity because, according to Diodorus Siculus (V.6.3-4), after a series of conflicts between the Siculi and the Sicani, the River Salso was declared the boundary between their respective territories, the Siculi dwelling to its east, the Sicani to its west.[2]
The name Salso is also given to a tributary of the Simeto, the most important river of Sicily.
