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The stone town is an area consisting of over 120 naturally formed stone pillars, located in the village of Kuklica, near Kratovo in North Macedonia. [1]
Kuklica is located 8 km northwest of Kratovo. The stone formations are situated on the right bank of the Kriva River valley. The area has an altitude of 415-420 m and extends over an area of 0.3 square km.
There are two main legends surrounding the formation of the strange stone pillars in Kuklica. The most famous legend is that of a man who could not decide which of two women he should marry. So, the man planned to marry each woman on the same day at different times. When the first wedding was in progress, the woman to marry the man second went to see who was getting married on the same day as she. When she saw her future husband marrying another woman, she cursed all in attendance at the wedding and turned them into stone. [2]
Another popular legend is that there was once a forest in the area, but due to battles it was burned down. Then, the area became a wasteland. The temperatures were very low and when the army passed through the wasteland, all of the soldiers turned into rocks.
According to the local villagers, new figures appear every 5-6 years. [2] There are four places at the Balkans where you can see this phenomenon, three of which are in North Macedonia. [3]
Aside from mystic stories and legends, the earth pyramid in Kuklica was formed as a result of natural erosion processes in the Holocene, during the past 100,000 years. Differences in the erodibility of the volcanic rocks of the area are the main factor for the pillars creation. Thus, soft tuffs rocks on the base are overlaid by solid, sturdy andesites and ignimbrites on the top, which are nearly 30 million years old. [4]
Devils Tower is a butte, possibly laccolithic, composed of igneous rock in the Bear Lodge Ranger District of the Black Hills, near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet from summit to base. The summit is 5,112 feet above sea level.
Garden of the Gods is a public park located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1971.
A hoodoo is a tall, thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland. Hoodoos typically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the elements. They generally form within sedimentary rock and volcanic rock formations.
Old Harry Rocks are three chalk formations, including a stack and a stump, located at Handfast Point, on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, southern England. They mark the most eastern point of the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a 932-acre (377-hectare) park located in the Sierra Pelona Mountains in northern Los Angeles County, California. It is known for its rock formations, the result of sedimentary layering and later seismic uplift. It is located near the town of Agua Dulce, between the cities of Santa Clarita and Palmdale. The area is visible from the Antelope Valley Freeway. It has been used as a location for films and television programs on many occasions.
The Ring of Gullion is a geological formation and area, officially designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, (AONB) located in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The area centres on Slieve Gullion, the highest peak in County Armagh, measures roughly 42 by 18 kilometres and comprises some 150 km2 defined topographically by the hills of an ancient ring dyke. Parts of the area have also been officially listed as Areas of Special Scientific Interest.
Kratovo is a small town in North Macedonia. It is the seat of Kratovo Municipality. It lies on the western slopes of Mount Osogovo at an altitude of 600 metres (2,000 ft) above sea level. Having a mild and pleasant climate, it is located in the crater of an extinct volcano. It is known for its bridges and towers.
Kumanovo is a municipality located in the northern part of North Macedonia. Kumanovo is also the name of the city where the municipal seat is found. Kumanovo Municipality is part of the Northeastern Statistical Region.
Rankovce is a municipality in the northeastern region of the Republic of North Macedonia. Rankovce is also the name of the town where the municipal seat is found. Rankovce Municipality is part of the Northeastern statistical region.
Đavolja varoš is a rock formation consisting of about 200 earth pyramids or "towers", located in southern Serbia on the Radan Mountain, in the municipality of Kuršumlija.
Stateira, possibly also known as Barsine, was the daughter of Stateira and Darius III of Persia. After her father's defeat at the Battle of Issus, Stateira and her sisters became captives of Alexander of Macedon. They were treated well, and she became Alexander's second wife at the Susa weddings in 324 BC. At the same ceremony Alexander also married her cousin, Parysatis, daughter of Darius' predecessor. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, Stateira was killed by Alexander's other wife, Roxana.
The Upper Danube Nature Park (German: Naturpark Obere Donau), founded in 1980, is located in the south of Baden-Württemberg in Germany and encloses primarily the districts of Tuttlingen and Sigmaringen. It encompassed initially 860 km2 that were increased by about 500 km2 in 2005. The headquarters of the nature reserve association is at Beuron. The highest proportion of the nature park is taken up by the Heuberg, the south-western plateau of the Swabian Alb, and is punctuated by the Danube.
The Stone Forest or Shilin is a notable set of limestone formations about 500 km2 located in Shilin Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China, near Shilin approximately 90 km (56 mi) from the provincial capital Kunming.
Kuklica is a small village in the municipality of Kratovo, North Macedonia. It is known for the hundreds of naturally formed stone pillars that resemble humans. The village has about 100 inhabitants.
Pulpit Rocks is a geological formation adjacent to Pike Road northwest of Huntingdon in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. These weathered rock formations were instrumental in the determination of the stratigraphy of the Appalachian Mountains in the mid-19th century by the Pennsylvania Geological Survey. This work was influential in opening up new fields of geological research. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993. It is partially owned by Juniata College, whose geology department uses the site for educational purposes. A plaque marks its location.
Tourism in North Macedonia is a large factor of the nation's economy. The country's large abundance of natural and cultural attractions make it suitable for tourism.
There are 24 named waterfalls in Ricketts Glen State Park in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania along Kitchen Creek as it flows in three steep, narrow valleys, or glens. They range in height from 9 feet (2.7 m) to the 94-foot (29 m) Ganoga Falls. Ricketts Glen State Park is named for R. Bruce Ricketts, a colonel in the American Civil War who owned over 80,000 acres (32,000 ha) in the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but spared the old-growth forests in the glens from clearcutting. The park, which opened in 1944, is administered by the Bureau of State Parks of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). Nearly all of the waterfalls are visible from the Falls Trail, which Ricketts had built from 1889 to 1893 and which the state park rebuilt in the 1940s and late 1990s. The Falls Trail has been called "the most magnificent hike in the state" and one of "the top hikes in the East".
The Manpupuner rock formations are a set of 7 stone pillars located west of the Ural mountains in the Troitsko-Pechorsky District of the Komi Republic. They are located on the territory of the Pechoro-Ilychski Reserve on the mountain Man-Pupu-nyor, between the Ilych and Pechora rivers. They are also known as the Seven Strong Men Rock Formations and the Poles of the Komi Republic. Deemed one of the Seven Wonders of Russia, the Manpupuner rock formations are a popular attraction in Russia, though relatively unspoiled by tourism.
The geology of the Isle of Man consists primarily of a thick pile of sedimentary rocks dating from the Ordovician period, together with smaller areas of later sedimentary and extrusive igneous strata. The older strata was folded and faulted during the Caledonian and Acadian orogenies The bedrock is overlain by a range of glacial and post-glacial deposits. Igneous intrusions in the form of dykes and plutons are common, some associated with mineralisation which spawned a minor metal mining industry.
The geology of North Macedonia includes the study of rocks dating to the Precambrian and a wide array of volcanic, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks formed in the last 541 million years.