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The beautiful and famous area
of Zagori is a network of 46 villages spread all over the
mountains on the north east of the city of Ioannina. It has
an area of some 1000 square kilometres and is in the shape
of an upturned equilateral triangle.
The villages of Zagori are famous for their unbelievable
natural beauty, their unique architecture and their long
history. Not without a reason of course, since the smashing
natural landscape, the pictures of every single village and
the unlimited opportunities for sally and every kind of
activities really charm and impress the visitor.
There are two features of the landscape of Zagori, which
usually impress the visitor. The first is its riverswith
their crystal-clear water -the Aoos, the Voidomatis, the
Vardas and the Zagoritikos, of which the Voidomatis is the
cleanest river in Europe. The other is the appearance of the
strata. The most common rock formations in Zagori are
limestone schist very light grey, almost white in colour and
flysch, a sand stone schist of a much darker grey.
The marked gullying typical of the area provides abundant
opportunity for observation of all the strata and their
buckling during the folding of the Earth's crust, which
produced the Dinaric Alps and the Pindus range. Both inside
and outside the gulleys and gorges, the mountains are
covered with forests. Depending on the altitude, the most
commonly encountered trees are the willow, the plane,
conifers of various kinds, the cornel, the oak, the iles,
the walnut and the beech. Above 2000m the vegetation is
classically Alpine
Megalo Papingo is one of the Zagori villages and is so
beautiful that just being there may be enough for you, but
you might also be interested in...
- Guided walks in the Vikos Gorge
- Rafting at Kalaritikos and Voidomatis
- Trekking at Vradeto and Drakolimni |
