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| Tavolara
Unique and original, Tavolara is the largest and most charming island in the territory of the marine protected area. In the Paleolithic period, about 37 thousand years ago, a deep watercourse ran between Tavolara and Molara. The current archipelago was linked to the land and could be reached on foot by crossing woods and Mediterranean maquis. The first human traces in Tavolara date back to this period: as a matter of fact in Grotta del Papa, whose name derives from the resemblance of some rocks to the papal tiara, rupestrian paintings and other traces of the Bonu Ighinu culture have been found (middle Neolithic). Since about 8 thousand years, the Cave is only accessible from the sea and islands have formed. Tavolara is characterized by high and steep ridges (cliffs) on which the result of the water erosion is evident: it takes the shape of showers of calcareous dissolution, natural arches, coastal pipes and caves intercalated by detritus layers, conglomerate and sandstone fossiliferous banks, among which the wonderful beach of Spalmatore di terra, witnessing the last interglacial period characterized by a subtropical climate.
In the granite panorama of Gallura, the Island of Tavolara represents an exception: 565 m of height, 6 km of length and 1 km of width, it is an enormous trapezium-shaped calcareous plateau, whose cliffs vertically dive for over 20m. Called Hermaea Insula by the Romans, it dominates all the coast and preserves its natural landscape thanks to the building prohibition imposed by the Municipality of Olbia. Two appendixes lie at the eastern and western edges: Spalmatore di Fuori, mountainous and steep, and Spalmatore di Terra, almost entirely flat. Here you can find a tiny group of houses, two restaurants, a cemetery, and a small harbor. Tavolara houses a rich avifauna and some rare botanic species. Between Tavolara and Capo Coda Cavallo, Isolotto di Molara and Scoglio del Molarotto emerge from the sea: the first re-presents the geological and environmental continuity of the nearby coast of Coda Cavallo and is formed by granite.
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