Mursia

Mursia

The valley of Mursia was presumably the first settlement of the island of Pantelleria dating around the second millennium BC whose inhabitants were dedicated to agriculture and fishing, as well as to build and sell objects in obsidian…

From the Arabic “Marsa” (port) it is assumed that the inhabitants came from the nearby Africa. They built a village of huts protected by a high wall of defense built with lava stones and today is the only one left of its kind in Europe.
More important though, are their funerary monuments, called Sesi and that today can be visited in the homonymous Archaeological Park.
They are circular constructions of stones of various sizes where were placed the bodies of their relatives.
In the local dialect Sesi indicates any mound of stones piled up without cement, and so have been named the tombs of the Neolithic while Sesioti indicates the people who built them.
Today you may see several archaeological digging areas to indicate the special features of this interesting site Mursia- Cimillia that leads us directly in contact with the first inhabitants of Pantelleria.