AREA: 45 square miles.

POPULATION: 5,000.

CAPITAL: Pantelleria.

62 miles from Sicily, 43 miles from Africa, and about 140 miles from Malta, this volcanic island located in the Strait of Sicily is part of Italian Sicily. End-to-end, the island is about 8 miles long, and 5 miles wide.

The main town, also known as Pantelleria, is located at the northwestern end of the island, and has the only useful harbor -- and even that only for small steamships. A ferry crosses over to the Sicilian town of Trapani, and back, once every weekday; light cargo can be carried by the ferry, but no automobiles. A single hotel is present in the town; the ten other villages on the island may have a cafe present, at best. Villas are available for rent, however. Electric power is available from 7 am to 10 pm; the naval garrison and police have access to the only telephone system, round-the-clock electricity, and the only radio transmitters. There are a few doctors, and a small clinic, in the town. The police are very strict. No foreign consulates are present.

The local form of construction involves thick walls of dark volcanic stone, domed and whitewashed roofs, and many cisterns -- there is no fresh water aquifer on the island. The population are mostly engaged in farming and gardening. Circular courtyards (for donkey-powered grain milling) are common in the villages. Zibibbo grapes are grown in protected vinyards, to produce fruity local pantesco white wine, or dried to raisins to make a stronger golden passito wine. Near the farm houses, circular high walled gardens, called giardini arabi, are built to protect lemon and orange trees and vegetable patches. Fruit and olive trees, vinyards, caper and cotton plantations surround the coastal villages.

Only a few cars and light trucks are present on the island, mostly owned by the government and military; the roads are narrow and rough. One road, the "Perimetrale", runs entirely around the island. Donkeys are the main means of transport here. There are no beaches on the island's shores, which are almost entirely sheer cliffs.

Carthaginian, Roman, and Neolithic ruins can be found just south of the town; some of the ruins date back 35,000 years. The Romans used the island as a place of exile for prominent enemies of the Empire. Arabs, Crusading Normans, Byzantines, Turks, and Italians took control of the island in turn.

Monte Grande, the caldera in the center of the island, rises 2743' about the sea; hot springs, geysers, natural sauna-caves, steam vents, and other signs of latent volcanic activity abound on the island, and even in the coastal waters and sea-caves! Dozens of other volcanic vents and craters can be found along the underwater slopes surrounding the island; many caves and grottos dot the landscape (and the coastal cliffs). The last large eruption of magma from Monte Grande was about 2000 BC, but the most recent eruption was in 1891, a couple of miles off the coast. Much of the island is basalt, quartz, glass, tufa, and obsidian; such soil as is present is fertile, black and volcanic in origin. Strong winds from Africa sweep over the island much of the year. The island itself is the top of an undersea mountain that rises 3000' from the seabed.

The Fascist government of Italy considers Pantelleria to be an important part of its naval strategy, able to block the British fleet from moving to and from Malta. Barbacane Castle, of Norman-Arabic construction (but most recently remodelled in 1794), looms over the harbor, and is the headquarters of the naval garrison. Various caves along the coast are being transformed into pens for torpedo-boats, seaplanes, and explosive-filled speedboats. Over a score of artillery and anti-aircraft emplacements are being surveyed and slowly constructed, as well as the usual ammunition dumps, air-raid shelters, fire direction centers, etc.. A primitive airfield has been laid out by the Italian Air Force, and ground is being cleared for paved runways, hangars, fuel-tanks, etc.. Rock is being moved by a military narrow-gauge railway to create a dock for landing construction and military materials, to the west of the existing harbor.