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Sicily ( ; (イタリア語:Sicilia) (:siˈtʃiːlja); ) is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea; along with surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy officially referred to as ''Regione Siciliana''. Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean. It extends from the tip of the Apennine peninsula, from which it is separated only by the narrow Strait of Messina, towards the North African coast. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, which, at , is the tallest active volcano in Europe and one of the most active in the world. The island has a typical Mediterranean climate. The earliest archeological evidence of human dwelling on the island dates from as early as 12,000 BC.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Sicily. Ediz. Inglese )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Pauline Frommer's Italy )〕 At around 750 BC, Sicily was host to a number of Phoenician and Greek colonies, and for the next 600 years, it was the site of the Greek–Punic and Roman–Punic wars, which ended with the Roman destruction of Carthage. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, Sicily frequently changed hands, and during the early Middle Ages, it was ruled in turn by the Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Arabs and Normans. Later it was ruled by Anjou, the crowns of Aragon, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire, and then finally unified under the Bourbons with Naples, as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Following the Expedition of the Thousand, a Giuseppe Garibaldi-led revolt during the Italian Unification process and a plebiscite, it became part of Italy in 1860. After the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946, Sicily was given special status as an autonomous region. Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature, cuisine and architecture. It also holds importance for archeological and ancient sites such as the Necropolis of Pantalica, the Valley of the Temples and Selinunte. ==Geography== Sicily has a roughly triangular shape, which earned it the name ''Trinacria''. To the east, it is separated from the Italian region of Calabria by the Strait of Messina, about wide in the north, and about in the southern part.〔(Britannica – Travel & Geography – Sicily ) Italian Sicilia – retrieved 11 May 2010.〕 The northern and southern coasts are each about long measured as a straight line, while the eastern coast measures around ; total coast length is estimated at . The total area of the island is , while the Autonomous Region of Sicily (which includes smaller surrounding islands) has an area of . The terrain of inland Sicily is mostly hilly and intensively cultivated wherever it was possible. Along the northern coast, mountain ranges of Madonie, , Nebrodi, , and Peloritani, , represent an extension of mainland Apennines. The cone of Mount Etna dominates over the eastern coast. In the south-east lie lower Hyblaean Mountains, . The mining|mines of the Enna and Caltanissetta districts were a leading sulfur-producing area throughout the 19th century, but have declined since the 1950s. Sicily and its small surrounding islands have some highly active volcanoes. Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe and still plagues the island with black ash with its ever current eruptions. It currently stands high, though this varies with summit eruptions; the mountain is lower now than it was in 1981. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps. Etna covers an area of with a basal circumference of . This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under this mountain by Zeus, the god of the sky, and Mount Etna is widely regarded as a cultural symbol and icon of Sicily. File:Mt Etna and Catania1.jpg|Mount Etna rising over suburbs of Catania The Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the northeast of mainland Sicily exhibit a volcanic complex including Stromboli. Currently active also are the three volcanoes of Vulcano, Vulcanello and Lipari, usually dormant. Off the southern coast of Sicily, the underwater volcano of Ferdinandea, which is part of the larger Empedocles, last erupted in 1831. It is located between the coast of Agrigento and the island of Pantelleria (which itself is a dormant volcano), on the underwater Phlegraean Fields of the Strait of Sicily. The autonomous region also includes several neighboring islands: the Aegadian Islands, the Aeolian Islands, Pantelleria and Lampedusa. File:Sicilian Landscape.jpg|Sicilian landscape 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sicily」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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