SURFACE

In 1892 Simon Rutar, a professor of Geography at the State Secondary School in Gorizia, described the karst plateau as "a petrified choppy sea." His description of "the high plain or the karst plateau, with its rugged terrain, dolines (i.e. sinkholes), valleys and small patches of barren land, from which piles of stones and bare mountain ridges rise" is very different from the karst landscape that we can see today.

Visitors would seek in vain to find the petrified karst of the 19th century. The modern-day Karst is covered by dense shrubbery and trees, which have transformed the barren karst land into a green carpet of vegetation. As a result, the karst landscape of today looks more like a ripply verdant sea, with trees tightly clinging to the rocky ground providing a much needed cool shade during the hot summer months while also protecting us from the harsh cold Bora wind during the colder months.

Hidden under a green carpet of trees, the karst landscape has managed to preserve its natural rock formations, dolines and slopes, artfully carved by water and other natural elements over thousands of years. These karst phenomena surprise even the most absent-minded visitors.

There is no such thing as a monotonous karst landscape. The rich karst flora brings vibrant colours to the karst landscape in any season of the year. Thus, a visitor can admire splashy spring flowers shooting up between grey rocks; walk along the summer meadows with yellow, dried up grasses; delight in the shiny red foliage of the varnish tree in autumn, and appreciate the green coniferous trees which soften the greyness of karst rocks and provide some protection from the violent, cold Bora wind in winter.