Mount Apo description and photos - Philippines: Mindanao Island (Topic)

Mount Apo description and photos - Philippines: Mindanao Island. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. English name - Mount Apo.

Photo and description

Mount Apo is a potentially active volcano located on the island of Mindanao, 40 km northeast of Davao city. The word "apo" in the language of the local population means "ancestor". This is the highest point of the island and the whole country - 2954 meters. Geologically, the volcano consists of the ancient crater Pettil McKinley and the young stratovolcano Apo. There is a small lake in its crater with a diameter of 500 meters. The date of the last eruption of Apo is unknown.

Today the volcano is one of the most popular places among rock climbers and climbers - the easiest way to the top takes about 2 days, the most difficult - from 7 to 9 days. And the first conqueror of Apo was Joaquin Rahal, the Spanish governor of Davao, who climbed the mountain on October 10, 1880. On the way to the top, tourists pass Lake Venado - one of the highest mountain lakes in the country, an ancient crater and solfatars - fumaroles, from which sulfur gases escape.

The entire mountain is included in the Mount Apo National Park, where on an area of 55 thousand hectares you can find evergreen dipterocarp forests with rare and endemic plant species. The park was created in 1936, and in 2004 it included two buffer zones with an area of 2.5 and 6.5 thousand hectares. In 2009, the Philippines Department of Environment and Natural Resources applied for the inclusion of Mount Apo Park as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site as a center of endemism in Mindanao. Three characteristic forest formations can be distinguished on the territory of the park - floodplain tropical rain forest, mid-mountain forest and high-mountain forest, each of which differs in species composition. There are 272 species of birds in Mount Apo alone, of which 111 are endemic. Here you can also meet the world's largest eagle - the Philippine, which is considered the national symbol of the Philippines.

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Topic: Mount Apo description and photos - Philippines: Mindanao Island.