Waching daily Mar 2 2018

In the central part of Croatia you may find the Plitvice Lakes National Park.

Its surface was made by the waters of Korana River.

In a couple thousands of years they formed travertine barriers that created

dams, lakes, waterfalls and caves.

The Park extends over 29 thousand hectares, 217 of which are occupied by the lakes.

They are connected by a cascade of 140 waterfalls of different height.

Usually in the middle of winter the cascades freeze,

shaping giant blue icicles and landscapes of unbelievable beauty.

The first tourists were military people that built a small recreation house for themselves in 1861.

By the end of the 19th century the lakes were visited by 1000 people annually

and nowadays the number is 1,5 million.

In 1949 the Plitvice Lakes were declared a National Park and in 1979 they was inscribed

on the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List.

Swimming in the lakes was allowed until 2006,

when scientists revealed that the increasing amount of organic substances in the water

have a bad effect on the fragile ecosystem.

The Plitvice waters have a color of bright-cyan and emerald

because of the thick saturation of minerals,

calcium and magnesium carbonates, algae, moss and bacteria.

The forests of the Park mainly consist of buck and pine trees.

More than a thousand of different kinds of plants grow here.

There are 50 types of orchids here.

75 types of plants are endemics – that means they can be found only here!

The lakes take their waters from five rivers: Korana, Crna, Bijela, Plitvica and Rechitsa.

The Yugoslavian wars of 1991 also affected the Plitvice Lakes:

battles were held on their territory.

Today the Park is cleared of land-mines and tourist infrastructure is restored.

Camp fires are also prohibited as well as having picnics and walking with dogs.

There is even special ground flooring for tourists to walk on in order to protect the grass.

The most beautiful waterfall of the Park is considered to be the Sastavci, being 72 meters high.

It is situated on the convergence of the Plitvica and Korana rivers.

The Plitvice Lakes are one of the places on Earth where new waterfalls appear each year:

they are created by the water that washes off the soft chalkstone grounds.