Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

Categories: Nature

The island of Bohol in the Philippines is the birthplace of a very unusual geographical landscape - Chocolate Hills. No, this is not a set for the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", this is a very real place on our amazing planet Earth. In summer, the dense vegetation covering the hills turns brown, which is why the hills are called Chocolate.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

Strangely, no one has ever found out the exact number of these strange hills. But it is believed that about 1800 dot the central part of the island of Bohol. And yet, what gives these hills their cone-shaped shape? Maybe these are ancient, man-made burial grounds?

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

Although these symmetrical hills are surrounded by many myths (which is not surprising), in fact it is a product of a natural process, and not the work of human hands. The hills are made of limestone, which then covered the vegetative soil on which the grass grew.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

These are not just hills on earth. The largest of them rises almost 121 meters above the Bohol plain, although their average height is about 30-48 meters.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

These amazing hills have become the main source of tourism income for the nearby town of Carmen.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

In the dry season, when there is not a drop of rain, the grass on the hills dries up (but does not die), and the hills acquire their chocolate color.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

Limestone on the hills is called karst. This landscape appears when the bedrock layers are created from a soluble substance such as dolomite or, in this case, limestone.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

They say that the hills got their name from the sweets of the confectionery factory "Hershey", which are called Chocolate kisses, but this is not yet a fact. If Hershey candies appeared in 1907, then the hills appeared much earlier.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

The landscape was slowly changing in a process known as solvation. And the hills are what's left of this process.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

The shape of the hills, known as the geomorphological structure, is called mogote. Although the hills were formed by the solvation of limestone under the millennial effects of rain, there is another factor.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

Their formation was also affected by the erosion of rivers that rose above sea level. The agricultural area separating the hills is full of rivers and caves with underground springs, and all of them have contributed to the unique shape of the Chocolate Hills.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

But, of course, as is the case with any unusual geographical place, the hills are shrouded in legends.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

According to one of them, two giants once quarreled. They fought, throwing huge stones at each other until they were exhausted. When they woke up, they forgot about their quarrel and dispersed, but did not even bother to clean up after themselves.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

If you are a romantic nature, then you will like the legend of Arogo and Aloya more. Arogo was a giant, but Aloya was a mortal, and her life was shorter. When Aloya died, Arogo cried so hard that when giant tears fell to the ground, Chocolate Hills grew in their place.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

According to other legends, the hills arose here by the whim of some giant who wanted to lose weight, or a huge moose with an inverted belly. If these legends had taken root, the Chocolate Hills could have received a completely different name.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

The hills were declared a national geographic monument in 1988, but mining continued to reduce the number of hills until 2006.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol Island

Even though this place has received the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, local residents continue to dig quarries here.

Keywords: Landscape | Island | Landscapes | Philippines | Chocolate

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