A few km. from Oristano, Cabras is a large town lying on the east coast of the famous pond of the same name, the largest in the province. Having an area of 2,200 hectares, it offers visitors an extraordinary naturalistic spectacle, being the habitat of numerous birds and an abundance of marine life. Some years ago, fishermen on this lake used the characteristic fassonis – ancient lacustrine junks constructed in a similar way to those used by the ancient Egyptians and those used on Lake Titticaca in Peru. In the middle of the pond is the island of Cùccuru is Arrìus where there are some of the oldest tombs in Sardinia. A strip of sand separates this pond from that of Mistas which joins the sea. Another pond is Sale Porcus, the largest of a series of ponds along the north west of the Sinis Peninsula. Being quite shallow, it attracts a large colony of flamingos and other species of aquatic birds. Almost at the foot of the Capo S. Marco promontory, is the S. Giovanni di Sinis church and the ancient nuraghe di Angius Corruda. North of S. Giovanni di Sinis lies the Abbarossa coast and the Turr ‘e Seu promontory (ex WWF oasis). The town centre offers some interesting places to visit, such as the Civic Museum, which exhibits finds from the necropolis and nuraghic sites of Cùccuru is Arrìius and Tharros, as well as the S. Maria church, built in the 16th century with materials from the castle, the remains of which can still be seen behind the church. Along the road to Tharros, about ten km. from Cabras, you come across the Roman santuario ipogeo di S. Salvatore (3rd century A.D.), at the centre of a village of cumbessias, the typical cottages of the Novenari. Used later as a Christian church, it contains a sacred well and prestigious remains of paintings connected with saving rites that took place there. At the end of the Sinis Peninsula, at Capo S. Marco, a short distance from the village of S. Giovanni, lies the ancient Phoenician city of Tharros, founded in the 8th century B.C., which became a flourishing port under the domination of the Carthaginians and Romans. It constitutes one of the most important Mediterranean archaeological sites, where you can see the remains of an acuaduct, two spas, a Punic temple, a topheth (Carthaginian sacrificial altar) and an ancient Christian baptistry. At Cabras, the festivals in honour of S. Salvatore are very interesting from an ethnographic point of view, with the corsa degli Scalzi (barefoot race), which relives the occasion when the inhabitants saved the statue of the saint during a pirate attack.