Les Calanques de Piana / E Calanche di Piana (Corsica)
N 42° 15.176 E 008° 39.441
32T E 471735 N 4677916
The most interesting and by tourists visited part of the UNESCO Word Heritage Site at Gulf of Porto in Corsica are eroded rock formations called "Les Calanques de Piana" ("E Calanche di Piana" in Corsican), located 5 km SW of Porto...
Waymark Code: WM74A4
Location: Corse, France
Date Posted: 08/31/2009
Views: 19
The most interesting and by tourists visited part of the UNESCO word heritage site at Gulf of Porto in Corsica are Les Calanques de Piana (E Calanche di Piana), located 5 km southwest of Porto. Les Calanques takes its name from "calanca", the Corsican word for creek or inlet, but the outstanding characteristics here are the vivid orange and pink rock masses and pinnacles which crumble into the dark blue sea.
Liable to unusual patterns of erosion, these tormented rock formations and porphyry needles, some of which soar 300 m above the waves, have long been associated with different animals and figures, of which the most famous is the Tête de Chien ("Dog's Head") at the north end of the stretch of cliffs. Other figures and creatures conjured up include a Moor's head, a monocled bishop, a bear and a tortoise.
The french writer Guy de Maupassant, while visiting the "Calanques" during fall 1880, was astonished by these "Pink granite rocks, 300 m high, strange, tortured, warped, reddished by the time, bleeding under the last fires of sunset and adopting all shapes like a fantastic people come out of fairy tales, petrified by some supernatural power..."