VELEBIT - CROATIA’S MOUNTAIN KING With a total area of almost 2000 km2 the Velebit Nature Park is the largest protected area in Croatia and larger than all the country’s other protected areas combined. Within the park is a series of smaller protected areas, including two national parks: Northern Velebit, and Paklenica, as well as the strictly protected Hajdučki and Rožanski kukovi reserves. On this magnificent mountain, which for its diversity, unique relief and wealth of plant and animal life is one of Europe’s most significant, there exists a broad spectrum of natural sights which represent the highest values that Croatia has to offer. Therefore, the whole of this 150 km-long mountain range has been classified as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, currently the only one in Croatia. Velebit possesses two distinctly dissimilar faces - barren rocky ground on its coastal face and vast forests on its continental face. Among Velebit’s countless beauties there are various relief karst forms, such as the unusual figure of Stapin, a vertical, 100-metre high rounded obelisk. There are also deep abysses and caves, wild canyons and swift rivers on its slopes, such as that karstic beauty the River Zrmanja.Velebit is the most important of Croatia’s mountains in its richness of plant and animal life, total number of species and for the number of species endemic only to this area. Although the most valuable element of the natural heritage of Velebit is protected within two national parks located in the northern and southern regions of the mountain, there are many natural sights in other of its areas, too. There is, for instance, the central part of the range around Bapke Optarije, a small, picturesque village at the mountain pass below the impressive Kiza ridge, with an old, scenic road leading to its foot. In Bapke Optarije stands one of the few hotels to be found on the mountain, an invitingly cosy and warm place and an ideal setting-off point for hikers. There are also many interesting sights in the far south-east of the mountain range, where the impressiveness of subterranean features equals those found on the surface. On the Lika side of the mountain, not far from the town of GraËac, is the site of the most striking of Croatia’s cave formations: Cerovačke spilje. The Upper and Lower CerovaËke caves are 4 km long, and the abundance and forms of stalagmites and stalactites will stagger the imagination of even the most creative of sculptors. Above Obrovac and the valley of Zrmanja, in the southernmost area of Velebit, is a quite special geomorphologic feature: Tulove grede. The main road through Velebit once led through the nearby Mali Alan Pass, but today it is used only by nature lovers, local foresters and shepherds.