One of the tallest sand dunes of Europe is located on the Curonian Spit (PHOTOS)
The ‘Curonian Spit’ national park in Kaliningrad Region is located on a strip of land between the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon. Its dune landscapes enchant and attract tourists from all over.
There, not far from the village of Morskoye (and the city of Zelenogradsk), one of the tallest sand dunes of Europe is located – Orekhovaya. It stretches for 2.4 kilometers along the lagoon; today, a nature trail goes along the dune, complete with many observation decks.
Tourists can witness the effect of “singing sands” on the dune, when the wind pushes grains of sand to grind against each other, seemingly making different sounds.
The tallest point of the dune (62 meters) is called Epha’s Height in honor of scientist and dune inspector Wilhelm Franz Epha (1828-1904). For more than 40 years, he worked around the Curonian Spit. Back then, these lands belonged to Eastern Prussia.
By the beginning of the 19th century, due to deforestation, the dunes began to move and rapidly consume everything in their path, even “swallowing” small villages.
The trees were no longer holding them back. To stop the sand, trees had to be planted anew.
And it was Epha who developed a successful method of sand dune stabilization; only by the beginning of the 20th century did the spreading of the sands finally stop.
Meanwhile, the process of sand stabilization continues to this day. Aside from that, tourists are only allowed to go along the official nature trails; and “stamping around” the dunes is forbidden.
