The Jonian Plane.
It covers the Jonian coast (approximately 40 km long) with the alluvional flatlands that have been altered greatly by man: nowadays it is a countryside of citrus groves and fruit trees with orchards and vegetable and market gardens, the sight is therefore very different from that of the malarial lands met by the 18th century traveller who ventured as far as here. The area gravitates for the most part around Metapontino, the first mythical land of the Greeks, latterly occupied by the Romans who contributed to its decline. Just beyond the coast, almost on the borders of Calabria, we have the ‘Bosco of Policoro’ (the Policoro Wood), expanding for some hundred hectares and which once were part of a much bigger forest. In the Jonian hinterland, of much worldwide renown and interest, the famous ‘Murgia’ rises in the Matera area with its Neolithic villages of Murgecchia, Murgia Timone and so on. The land offers a white-lunar scape of limestone, rich in carsic features and natural grottos, excavated by gulleys and ravines. It is an arid, bleak scene which captivates the imagination through the sudden, silent presence of the solidness of stone, shadowed by age-old oaks that flank the ‘masserie’ (farms). In the Murgia, a continental plateau or tableland which offers spectacular ravines, deep valleys and enormous crevices dug out of the rock. A later chapter is devoted to the fascinating grottoes and the ‘Sassi’ (cave dwellings). Near Matera, the San Giuliano Lake has been created following the damming of the Bradano, which is an entire ravine and offers a unique, spectacular sight. It is a man-made landscape of 1,000 hectares, surrounded by beautiful vegetation thanks to reforesting. It has been a protected area for wildlife (Oasi di Protezione) since 1976 with herons, coots, mallards, teals, widgeons and much more). On land we have snipe and curlews and other more common species such as the fox and the weasel.