Place · mountain

Mount Etna

Also known as Aetna

Mount Etna is an active volcano on the east coast of Sicily and the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps, about 3,300 metres high. Its fertile lower slopes attracted Greek colonists, who founded Catana at its foot in 729 BCE, and its eruptions repeatedly damaged the city. Greek writers placed the forge of Hephaestus and the buried giant Typhon beneath it.

Mount Etna
Image: BenAveling · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 3 state histories

Naxos (Sicily)CatanaTauromenium

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Mount Etna. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mount-etna
MLA
“Mount Etna.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mount-etna. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Mount Etna.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mount-etna.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Mount Etna’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mount-etna (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻