The Amata is a river in

Gauja National Park __NOTOC__ Gauja National Park ( lv, Gaujas nacionālais parks) in Vidzeme is the largest national park in Latvia, with an area of 917.86 km2 running from north-east of Sigulda to south-west of Cēsis along the valley of the Gauja River, fr ...

in the Middle Latvian Lowland. It flows from lake Kukala in

Vidzeme Vidzeme (; Old Latvian orthography: ''Widda-semme'', liv, Vidūmō) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. The capital of Latvia, Riga, is situated in the southwestern part of the region. Literally meaning "the Middle Land", it is situated in n ...

, 66 km, to the river

Gauja The Gauja River ( et, Koiva jõgi, german: Livländische Aa) is a river in the Vidzeme region of Latvia. It is the only large river of Latvia that begins and ends its flow in Latvia. Its length is 460 km, of which 93.5 km (approxim ...

. The riverbanks feature

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

cliffs , and rapids. The River Amata is one of

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

's fastest rivers. It has one of the deepest and most unusual valleys of all the rivers in

, with up to 45 m high sandstone and

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

banks. One of the steepest bank of Amata is the Zvārtes rock. It is more than 350 million years old and its height measures 20 m. It is one of the most popular sandstone outcrops in Latvia. Folk tales tell that Zvārtes rock used to be a meeting place of witches on Whitsunday, St. John’s Day and Christmas. On those days they rushed on brooms from pine forests of the surroundings.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 57, 18, N, 25, 08, E, display=title, region:LV_type:river_source:GNS-enwiki Rivers of Latvia Gauja basin Cēsis Municipality Vidzeme