The Ceraunian Mountains is a coastal mountain range in southwestern Albania

Albania

Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

. The name is derived from Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 Κεραύνια ὄρη, meaning "thunder-split peaks".

The range extends approximately 100 km along the coast in a northwesterly direction from the Greek border to the Strait of Otranto

Strait of Otranto

The Strait of Otranto connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea and separates Italy from Albania. Its width at Punta Palascìa, east of Salento is less than . The strait is named after the Italian city of Otranto.- History :...

. The highest peak is Çika

Çika

Mount Çika is a mountain in the south-western region of Albania bordering the Ionian Sea. The highest peaks of Çika are Maja e Çikës standing at 2,045m above sea level and Maja e Qorrës at 2,018m. Since the mountain is situated bordering the Ionian sea, it appears to be very high as it begins to...

, (2012 m). The Llogara

Llogara National Park

Llogara or Llogora National Park is a national park in Albania declared since 1966 by the Albanian Government. The park covers an area of 1,010 hectares and protects the forests on the north side of the Llogara Pass between a height from 470m to 2,018m above sea level...

 Pass (1027 m) divides the mountains into a western and an eastern range. The western chain are also known as Acroceraunian Mountains. In some places the mountains fall directly into the sea.

The Ceraunian Mountains have been described by ancient writers such as Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

, Strabo

Strabo

Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...

 and Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...

. Consequently their classical Greek name is better known than the modern Albanian one.

Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 first set foot on Llogara Pass and rested his legion at Palase

Palase

Palase is a card game derived from the Danish .-Setting Up:# Shuffle a deck of standard playing cards. Deal three cards face down to each of the players. Do not allow the players to look at these cards. Set the three cards up beside one another.# Then deal them each six cards face down...

 on the Albanian Riviera during his pursuit of Pompey

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...

.