Pantelleria (; Sicilian: Pantiddirìa), the ancient Cossyra or Cossura, is an Italian island and comune in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of Sicily and east of the Tunisian coast. On clear days Tunisia is visible from the island. Administratively Pantelleria's comune belongs to the Sicilian province of Trapani. The population of Pantelleri was 7,335 in 2022, according to istat.it. Description With an area of , Pantelleria is the largest volcanic satellite island of Sicily. The last eruption occurred below sea level in 1891, and today phenomena related to volcanic activity are present, such as hot springs and fumaroles. The highest peak, the Montagna Grande, reaches above sea level. The islanders speak Pantesco, a dialect of Sicilian influenced by Arabic. Names The Carthaginians knew the island as () or (). The Greek geographers recorded it as Kossyra () and Kossyros (), which became the Latin . This appears in Arabic as Qawṣirah () and Maltese as the former name . The original Arab name for the island was Bint al-Riyāh (Arabic: and Maltese: Bint l-Irjieħ), meaning "Daughter of the Winds" after the strong gales that can arise off the north coast of Africa. Its Sicilian name is , which gave rise to the present Maltese name . History The earliest evidence of human activity dates to the Neolithic period distinguished for its use of obsidian tools and construction of stone structures and tombs known locally as "Sese". The original population of Pantelleria did not come from Sicily, but were of Iberian or Ibero-Ligurian ancestry. After a considerable interval, during which the island probably remained uninhabited, the Carthaginians took possession of it, no doubt owing to its importance as a station on the way to Sicily. This probably occurred around the beginning of the 7th centuryBC. Their acropolis was the twin hill of San Marco and Santa Teresa, south of the present town of Pantelleria. The town has considerable remains of walls made of rectangular blocks of masonry and also of a number of cisterns. Punic tombs have been discovered, and the votive terra-cottas of a small sanctuary of the Punic period were found near the north coast. The Romans occupied the island as the Fasti Triumphales record in 255BC, lost it again the next year, and recovered it in 217BC. It struck bronze coins, originally with a Punic inscription but changing to Latin by the 1st centuryBC.