The Great Blue Mountains description and photos - Australia (Topic)

The Great Blue Mountains description and photos - Australia. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The name in English is The Great Blue Mountains.

Photo and description

The Great Blue Mountains is a territory in the state of New South Wales, in 2000 included in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List. The landscape of the territory is unusually diverse - rugged plateaus, sheer cliffs, deep, inaccessible gorges, rivers and lakes teeming with life. The unique plants and animals found in this area are living proof of Australia's ancient history and its incredible biodiversity.

The Great Blue Mountains is a forested plateau of 10,300 sq km located 60 km from Sydney. For comparison: its territory is twice the area of Brunei and makes up almost one third of the territory of Belgium.

This area got its name because of an unusual phenomenon: when the air temperature rises, eucalyptus trees growing here evaporate essential oils, and then the visible blue spectrum of sunlight spreads more than other colors. Therefore, the human eye perceives the surrounding landscape as bluish.

There are seven national parks in the Great Blue Mountains - Blue Mountains, Wollemi, Yengo, Nattai, Kanangra Boyd, Rock Garden and Silmer Lakes - and Jenolana Karst Caverns.

In fact, this territory does not consist of mountains in the usual sense of the word, it is a deeply indented plateau, the highest point of which is 1300 meters above sea level. It is believed that such a geological structure of the plateau protects its inhabitants from abrupt climatic changes, which allowed many species of plants and animals to survive the periods of global "restructuring" of our planet.

The most famous plants of the Blue Mountains are, of course, eucalyptus - there are 91 species of them here! Twelve of them are endemic, that is, they are not found anywhere else in the world. For scientists, this is a real laboratory for studying the evolution of these amazing ancient trees. And it was here in 1995 that the peers of the dinosaurs were discovered - the Wollem pines, which were considered to have disappeared from the face of the Earth millions of years ago.

More than 400 species of animals live among the gorges and uplands of the Blue Mountains, including rare and endangered species - speckled marsupial marten, koala, giant marsupial flying squirrel, long-nosed potoru, etc.

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Topic: The Great Blue Mountains description and photos - Australia.