This ridge, composed of thick and bright layers of gypsum and anhydrite, takes on a golden hue at sunset, as if setting the horizon ablaze, transforming the landscape into a theater of light and stone.
Walking along the "Serra dei Gessi" means crossing an open-air geological museum: in the cuts of old quarries or along dirt paths, one can observe outcrops of selenite crystals - the “salt of the underground” - shimmering in the sun like small flakes of opaque glass, and regular stratifications that tell the story of the Mediterranean basin’s evaporation phases.
The karst morphology has carved into the ridge a series of sinkholes, swallow holes, and gypsum caves that, although smaller than the famous Giunta Caves, reflect the same underground mystery: rainwater seeps through deep fractures, creating intricate marble-like patterns beneath the surface. In springtime, the plateaus atop the "Serra" are adorned with wild orchids and tufts of "Ampelodesmos mauritanicus", while along the gravelly edges bloom asphodels and cornflowers - signs of life’s rebirth in an otherwise harsh environment.
Among the most evocative viewpoints, the *Belvedere di Portella Scalazza" overlooks valleys cultivated with almond and olive trees - a mosaic alternating the order of citrus groves with the wild geometry of the gypsum cliffs. Since the 19th century, the ridge was exploited for gypsum, a valuable raw material for lime and plaster, but the decline of quarrying left behind monuments of industrial archaeology: small kilns, remains of aerial tramways, and tracks of old *Decauville* rails once used to transport the extracted blocks.
Today, the abandoned quarries serve as a refuge for birds of prey such as the peregrine falcon and the buzzard, while at dusk the silence is broken only by the call of the hoopoe and the flutter of larks’ wings.