Fiumara Amendolea, crystalline-metamorphic rocks of the Paleozoic Era. Over 30 km in length with a drainage basin of 150 km2, with origin at 1400 m above sea level, right in the heart of the Park, formed by the Placa and Menta torrents and a series of impluvium: this is the birth of the Fiumara Amendolea.

The Fiumara is a typical ephemeral watercourse very common in Calabria and part of Sicily with the appearance of a torrent in the mountain section and with a riverbed almost 800m wide near the mouth. The name seems to derive from the presence of meny almond trees along the banks, called mmenduli in the local dialect. The Fiumara Amendolea is a worldwide example of a fiumara with not only geological but also historical, cultural and naturalistic characteristics and a landscape with singularities which vary along the course of this ancient watercourse. In the wintertime it can reach the full flood while in summer an only a few meters wide brooklet meanders along the entire bed of the watercourse under the steep valleys and ridges which continue to unload large boulders and debris. In ancient times it seems that the sea entered the inland for several kilometers, making it navigable and thus favoring the Greek colonization in this portion of the territory.