The territory of Supramonte is approx. 35.000 HA wide and it is part of the communes of Orgosolo, Urzulei, Dorgali, Baunei, Oliena.
The Supramonte of Orgosolo is more than 3.360 HA wide, the surface is deeply moulded by the Karst process. Exploring it you can discover its wild and unpolluted nature; indeed inside the different geological stages are evident. You can find deep gorges, caves, and amazing calcareous blocks of Mount SAN GIOVANNI (1316 MT ) e MountFUMAI (two biodiversity places, rich of endemic arboreous and herbaceous).
You can find dolinas, the most important of which, “SU SIELHONE”, is 500 MT wide, vertical walls of about 150 MT that in 1989 has been declared “NaturalMonument” from the Region of Sardinia.
In the oriental side, along the Flumineddu river, the calcareous blocks suddenly end in a canyon 22 km long. In the final part begins the Gorge of GORROPPU, one of the biggest in Europe, and presents at its interior vertical walls 400 MT high.
In the Supramonte of Orgosolo there is still one of the last pieces of“Primary Forest” of Europe and represents a particular treasure from the floristic point of view; indeed, besides the arboreous wild plants such as Holm-oaks, Yew, Phyllirea, Juniper, Holly, it is particularly rich of herbaceous and shrubby plants, some of them seem to be endemic. Among them we can name the Ribes mulriflorum, sandalioticum kind, the Ephedra nebrodensis, the Thimus herba barona, theBuplerum fruticosum,the Elicrisium microphillum, the Prunus prostata, the Peonia mascula, the Alissum Tavolarae, the Ramnhus alpina, the Aquilegia barbaricina, the Cerastium supramontanum. Concerning the fauna you can find the moufflon, the wild boar, the marten, the wild cat and the Sardinian dormouse.
The rock walls are the ideal habitat of several birds of prey, such as the golden eagle, the goshawk, the sparrow hawk, the peregrin hawk, the kestrel, and the buzzard.
Up to 30 years ago you could also find the griffon vulture, the cinereus vulture, and the lammergeyer, that thanks to the human presence involved in the sheep breeding, of goats, swine, cows, in a wild state, had created an ecosystem unique to its genre.
The human presence in the Supramonte dates back to the pre-nuragic and nuragic period and we still find evidence of these periods in the nuragic sites of “Nuraghe Mereu”, and “Nuraghe Presethu Torthu”, original for being white because built with calcareous stone.
