The Mines Region - West Sardinia

If you proceed further to north, the landscape returns sweeter, opening on large beaches, more similar to Ocean beaches rather than Mediterranean, for example the beach of Cala Domestica , but in particular those of Buggerru and Portixeddu, culminating with Piscinas, a flat plain similar to the African desert which you would never expect to find in Sardinia.
These beaches are still undiscovered by mass tourism, and they are mainly attended by those in search for peace and isolation, in a unique environmental context.
The architectural ghosts of the old mines, now abandoned, hang over this leg of coast with their relative annexes. Some of these buildings directly face the sea and are visible only from the boat, like Porto Flavia; others are situated in the desert inland, disappearing from the sight like modern ruins swallowed by the vegetation and sculpted by the wind.

A landscape of silence, which fascination lies not only in the landscapes, but also in these "dark buildings", the mines, and the numerous archaeological memories. Like the Punic temple of Antas, reconstructed under the Romans in Hellenic style, set amidst a wild and inaccessible site which increases its suggestion. In order to protect this particular environment, Unesco has patronised the creation of the historical and environmental geo-mining park of Sardinia, with projects aiming at the recovery and revaluation of the architectural heritage of the dismissed mines, and the conversion of the former mining world into modern ecosustainable tourist structures and activities, for instance through the reintegration of the former miners and their families in the field of work. These same families have been involved in active protests against the continuous delays in the concrete realisation of the project.