Aeolian Islands
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How it came to be
The Aeolian Islands are a volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily, with seven main islands including Lipari, Vulcano and Stromboli. They are said to be named after Aeolus, the mythical ruler of the winds.
Between about 4000 and 2500 BC settlers from Sicily lived on Lipari and prospered by making and trading obsidian tools. In 580 BC Greek exiles from Rhodes and Knidos landed on Lipari. In 1544 an Ottoman fleet under Hayreddin Barbarossa took Lipari and carried off much of its population.
Stromboli has been erupting almost continuously for the past 2,000 to 5,000 years, and an eruption on Vulcano lasted 19 months from August 1888. The Vulcanian and Strombolian eruption types named after the two islands have been used to train geologists for more than 200 years. UNESCO listed the islands in 2000.
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