San Giacomo

Sardinia is an island of secrets. Not only because it still surprises us in our modern times with its colors, villages, ruins and landscapes, but because there are also inconspicuous, small things to discover. Like a rock formation west of Sant' Antonio di Gallura. Ten meters long and twelve meters high, the jagged rock is reminiscent of the Egyptian sphinx. And so it was given the name La Sfinge.

You can visit the Sardinian sphinx on a leisurely gravel tour. Coming from Arzachena, after about four kilometers turn left onto an asphalt road. The surface soon turns into gravel. On the wide track you quickly get past the hamlet of San Giacomo over slight elevations to the stone formation in question. And indeed: head, eyes, mouth - the sphinx as it lives and breathes. Only instead of being formed by human hands, it was formed by nature, which carved the soft sandstone out of the hard lime.

Or not? A legend, of which Sardinia has more than enough, tells the story of the shepherd Maltinu. He led a lonely, quiet life up here around 1900 and was content with himself and the world. From time to time, hikers or traders visited him on their way over the mountains. Until one day they didn't find him. They looked for him and finally found him sitting at the foot of the Sphinx. With a beaming face and completely happy. The Sphinx? He created it. Basta.