# SLOVAKIA: Forgotten beauty



## sqooth (Mar 17, 2009)

Slovakia, small country in central europe, is hidding many natural gems ... gems of real breathtaking wilderness ...

1. NP MURÁNSKA PLANINA (Muráň Plateau NP) ... this very small national park represents an ancient limestone plateau covered with deep forest and eroded by surface and underground waters. Area is home for wild animals such as bear, lynx and wolf and also is rich for rare species of flora. There is almost no tourist infrastructure and many inaccessible places like ravins, rock formations, caves and chasms.









































































2. FOUR GREAT VALLEYS: BIELOVODSKÁ, JAVOROVÁ, KÔPROVÁ, TICHÁ (All parts of Tatra NP) ... Tatra National Park represents the highiest mountain range in Slovakia and in whole Carphatian range (2655m). All of these very long valleys are less frequented by tourists than rest of the park. It's hard to decide which one is nicer, they are all surrounded with craggy peaks, dotted with green and blue moutain lakes, covered with mysterious virgin forests. We can't forget that's a kingdom of moutains goats, dears, bears, lynxes and wolfes ... and your only guides there are high flying eagles ... 




































































































3. NP SLOVENSKÝ RAJ (Slovak Paradise NP) ... this very popular national park consists with few limestone plateaus divided by deep canyons and ravines. The real treasure of this park are these particular ravines and canyons filled with many waterfalls and accessible only by help of different technical aids such as metal and wooden ladders and steps, chains and footbridges. Generations of tourists admire narrow rocky passes, sparkling waterfalls, bizarre rock formations, fairlytale forests and meadows. There is also very famous underground world represented by Dobšiná ice cave which is part of more than 22km long system of caves. Dobšiná ice cave has the biggest amount of ice in Europe and is open for public. Thickness of underground glacier reaches in some places 26 meters. This monumental glaciation of the Dobšinská Ice Cave persists for thousands of years at elevations only 920 to 950 m. Cave was electrical lighted as a first in the world and is recorded in the UNESCO world cultural and natural heritage list. Bears, wolfes and dears are original inhabitants of these moutains.













































































































4. NP SLOVENSKÝ KRAS (Slovakian Karst NP) ... one of the newest national parks in Slovakia. The park is made of 7 limestone plateaus divided by flat-bottom valleys and deep canyons. This is the largest karst theritory in central europe with almost all surface and underground karst phenomena that continues over slovak-hungarian border. You can find more than 1000 caves and chasms there, some of them are real natural wonders such as Ochtina cave with unique aragonit fill, Krásna Hôrka cave with the highest stalagmite in the world (over 32m) or Silica ice cave that is the lowest lying classical ice cave of the northern latitude temperate climatic zone (elevation only 500m). Bilateral nomination Slovak-Hungarian project “The Caves of Slovak and Aggtelek Karst” was approved by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Berlin on 4th – 9th December 1995. That fact ranked these caves among the world famous natural and cultural speleological locations like the Mamoth Cave National Park (the longest cave system on Earth) and Carlsbad Caverns National Park in the USA, underground canyon of the Škocjanske Caves in Slovenia, cultural monuments Altamíra Caves in Spain and caves in the valley of Vézére (Lascaux and others) in France. The most dramatic feature of the park is monumental Zádiel canyon, more than 2km long and over 300m deep or steep Háj pass with brook cascading over travertine terraces. From the floristic point of view it is the richest district of the Pannonian flora. We can find here xerothermous species, calciphyts, mountain dealpine and prealpine species in inversion locations and important endemic, subendemic and relict species. The animals have important representation of zoocenoses of the steppe and forest-steppe zone. The area interacts with man very long time, since prehistoric times. You can spend there many days just rambling across the plateaus trying to avoid sink holes and dark mouths of chasms and caves.






















































































































MORE AREAS AND PHOTOS ARE COMING SOON ...


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## romanyo (Jun 14, 2008)

:eek2: Impressive photos and places!!!


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## manila_eye (Aug 12, 2008)

wonderful! i wish i could go there.


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## Robin.Be (Jan 30, 2006)

Really amazing country ! :cheers:


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## Mares de Morros_XXI (Dec 16, 2007)

woooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!
my god is this kind of nature i've been talking of!!
sqooth you made a good service!!Thanks!
greetings from brazil!


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## cesar-in (Nov 27, 2008)

very nice and beutiful, landscapes..
regards from méxico...:cheers:


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## Get Smart (Oct 6, 2008)

very picturesque


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## sqooth (Mar 17, 2009)

To Mares de Morros_XXI: big thanx, im glad if u are interested in. I was in brazil in 2007 and despite robbery in rio, it was unforgetable trip.


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