Dunajec River Gorge - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Dunajec River Gorge runs through the Pieniny

Pieniny

Pieniny is a mountain range in the south of Poland and the north of Slovakia.The Pieniny mountain range is divided into three parts – Pieniny Spiskie and Pieniny Właściwe in Poland; and, Malé Pieniny in Slovakia. The Pieniny mountains consist mainly of the limestone and dolomite rock strata...

Mountains in the south of Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

and the north of Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

(as Dunajec is the border river between the two countries in the area). The gorge is characterized by some of the most interesting geological

Geology of Europe

The geology of Europe is varied and complex, and gives rise to the wide variety of landscapes found across the continent, from the Scottish Highlands to the rolling plains of Hungary...

and geomorphological

Geomorphology

Geomorphology is the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them...

structures and area-specific natural ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

s with little anthropogenic influence. It is featured on UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

's Tentative List of World Heritage Sites in Poland.

Dunajec Gorge is also one of the best-known tourist

Tourism in Poland

Poland is a part of the global tourism market with constantly increasing number of visitors, particularly after joining the European Union. Tourism in Poland contributes to the country's overall economy. The most popular cities are Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Toruń and the...

attractions in the Pieniny Mountains. Wooden canoe trips

Canoeing

Canoeing is an outdoor activity that involves a special kind of canoe.Open canoes may be 'poled' , sailed, 'lined and tracked' or even 'gunnel-bobbed'....

have been organized daily by Goral

Gorals

The Gorale are a group of indigenous people found along southern Poland, northern Slovakia, and in the region of Cieszyn Silesia in the Czech Republic...

highlanders since the early 19th century — when their customers consisted mostly of guests of nearby Niedzica

Niedzica Castle

Niedzica Castle also known as Dunajec Castle , is located in the southernmost part of Poland in Niedzica . It was erected between the years 1320 and 1326 by Kokos of Brezovica on the site of an ancient stronghold surrounded by earthen walls in the Pieniny mountains...

and Czorsztyn

Czorsztyn

Czorsztyn is a village in Poland, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Nowy Targ County. The village lies in Pieniny, is located in the mountain range on the current Polish-Slovakian border...

castles. The trip begins in the village of Sromowce Kąty, and ends in the resort town of Szczawnica

Szczawnica

Szczawnica is a resort town in Nowy Targ County in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. As of June 30, 2007, its population was 7,378....

, 18 km downstream. It takes about 2-3 hours. The second leg of the tour is only 5 km long. It begins in Szczawnica and ends in the town of Krościenko

Kroscienko

Krościenko can refer to three villages in Poland:*Krościenko nad Dunajcem*Krościenko Wyżne*Krościenko, Bieszczady County in Subcarpathian Voivodeship...

. The Gorge makes 7 loops

Meander

A meander in general is a bend in a sinuous watercourse. A meander is formed when the moving water in a stream erodes the outer banks and widens its valley. A stream of any volume may assume a meandering course, alternately eroding sediments from the outside of a bend and depositing them on the...

in its length. The surrounding rock reaches 300 m in height almost all the way through.

Geography

The Gorge is part of a valley located within the Pieniny National Park

Pieniny National Park (Poland)

Pieniny National Park is a protected area in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland, in the heart of the Pieniny Mountains.- The location :...

. The landscape distinguishes it from surrounding mountains due to interaction of natural factors such as geological ground, relief, water, soil, climate, flora and fauna, and their evolutionary relationships. All these elements contribute to the complexity of the natural beauty of the whole area.

The conditions for the development of unique flora and fauna are closely related to the limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

and dolomite

Dolomite

Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....

rock

Rock (geology)

In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...

strata. Literally, the rock is the foundation for this one-of-a-kind environment. There is the occurrence of the Carpathians

Carpathian Mountains

The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...

' plant and animal species, in many cases endemic. Their varied morphologic

Morphology (biology)

In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....

segmentation is responsible for the area's original and highly valuable aesthetic

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...

character.

From a botanical

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

standpoint the Dunajec River Gorge serves as an example of area-specific vegetation dating back to the glacial age

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

, even though the Pieniny Mountains were not glaciated. From a geographical

Geography of Poland

Poland is a country in Central Europe with an area of 312,679 square kilometres , and mostly temperate climate. Generally speaking, Poland is an almost unbroken plain reaching from the Baltic Sea in the north, to the Carpathian Mountains in the south...

standpoint it exists apart from the West Carpathians flora (Carpaticum occidentale) with their endemics and subendemics. From a zoological

Zoology

Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...

standpoint the Mesozoic

Mesozoic

The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...

valleys have an extraordinary importance for preservation of many species and fauna of the Carpathians. Enormous segmentation of the terrain results in high concentration of biodiversity in a relatively small area.

The Dunajec River Gorge represents the main stages of geological and geomorphological evolution of mountain terrain from the early Cenozoic

Cenozoic

The Cenozoic era is the current and most recent of the three Phanerozoic geological eras and covers the period from 65.5 mya to the present. The era began in the wake of the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous that saw the demise of the last non-avian dinosaurs and...

era to the Quaternary period including tectonic movement, geological structure, petrographic

Petrography

Petrography is a branch of petrology that focuses on detailed descriptions of rocks. Someone who studies petrography is called a petrographer. The mineral content and the textural relationships within the rock are described in detail. Petrographic descriptions start with the field notes at the...

composition and proportion of rocks.

Geography

See also