The Serre Calabresi or Calabrian Serre (Calabrian

Calabrian

Calabrian may refer to:* Calabrian languages, the languages and dialects spoken in Calabria* Calabrians, the people of Calabria, southern Italy...

 dialect: Serra) are a mountain and hill area of Calabria

Calabria

Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....

, southern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, characterized by large extents of woods.

The name could be derived by the Jewish Ser, meaning "mountains", or it could refer to the shape of a handsaw. The highest peak is the Monte Pecoraro

Monte Pecoraro

Monte Pecoraro is a mountain in the Serre Calabresi, in southern Calabria, southern Italy. It has an elevation of .It is located in the territory of Mongiana, in the province of Vibo Valentia....

, with an altitude of 1423 m.

Geography and geology

The chain begins at the Passo della Limina

Passo della Limina

The Passo della Limina is a mountain pass in Calabria, southern Italy. It marks the natural boundary between the Aspromonte and the Serre Calabresi massifs.It has an altitude of 822 m....

 and ends at Catanzaro Isthm, the narrowest in Italy (35 km separating the Ionian Sea

Ionian Sea

The Ionian Sea , is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania to the north, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante, Kephalonia, Ithaka, and...

 from the Tyrrhenian Sea

Tyrrhenian Sea

The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....

). It is bounded by the Sila Range from the north and by the Aspromonte

Aspromonte

Aspromonte is a mountain massif in the province of Reggio Calabria . The name means "rough mountains", so named by the farmers who found its steep terrain and rocky soil difficult to cultivate. It overlooks the Strait of Messina, being limited by the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas and by the Pietrace...

 from the south.

Geologically, the Serre Calabresi are part of the so-called Calabrian Alps, and are mostly formed by graniti

Graniti

Graniti is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 160 km east of Palermo and about 45 km southwest of Messina. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,550 and an area of 10.0 km².Graniti borders the following municipalities: Antillo,...

, porphyry

Porphyry (geology)

Porphyry is a variety of igneous rock consisting of large-grained crystals, such as feldspar or quartz, dispersed in a fine-grained feldspathic matrix or groundmass. The larger crystals are called phenocrysts...

 and diorite

Diorite

Diorite is a grey to dark grey intermediate intrusive igneous rock composed principally of plagioclase feldspar , biotite, hornblende, and/or pyroxene. It may contain small amounts of quartz, microcline and olivine. Zircon, apatite, sphene, magnetite, ilmenite and sulfides occur as accessory...

. The eastern area also includes sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

, while the Monte Mammicomito

Monte Mammicomito

Monte Mammicomito is a massif in the Serre Calabresi, southern Calabria, southern Italy. Is is composed of Devonian-origin limestone.Monte Mammicomito is separated from Monte Consolino by a narrow valley, in which is the town of Pazzano.-Sources:...

 has instead a limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

-dolomite

Dolomite

Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....

 structure, characterized also by Karst topography

Karst topography

Karst topography is a geologic formation shaped by the dissolution of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite, but has also been documented for weathering resistant rocks like quartzite given the right conditions.Due to subterranean drainage, there...

. Badlands

Badlands

A badlands is a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. It can resemble malpaís, a terrain of volcanic rock. Canyons, ravines, gullies, hoodoos and other such geological forms are common in badlands. They are often...

 are also present.

Fauna and vegetation

The fauna of the Serre has been depleted by human hunting. Recently, the Italian wolf has returned, probably from Sila.

Vegetation include Abies alba and Oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

 in the lowest slopes, while the Beech

Beech

Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...

predominates over the 80 m of altitude.

Sources