The Dune of Pilat ( French: ''Dune du Pilat'', official name), also called ''Grande Dune du Pilat'', is the tallest sand

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. It is located in

La Teste-de-Buch La Teste-de-Buch (; oc, La Tèsta (de Bug) ) is a commune in the Gironde department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Southwestern France. It is located on the south shore of Arcachon Bay, lying in the southwestern part of Gironde. It is the largest of fo ...

in the

Arcachon Bay Arcachon Basin or alternatively Arcachon Bay (French: ''Bassin d'Arcachon'') is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean on the southwest coast of France, situated in Pays de Buch between the Côte d'Argent and the Côte des Landes, in the region of Aquitai ...

area,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, 60 km (37.2 mi) southwest of

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

. With more than two million visitors per year, the Dune of Pilat is a famous tourist destination.

Location

The Dune Of Pilat is located at the southern entrance to the Arcachon basin, in the locality of Pyla-sur-Mer, which is administratively dependent on the municipality of La Teste-de-Buch, near

Arcachon Arcachon ( ; ) is a commune in the southwestern French department of Gironde. It is a popular seaside resort on the Atlantic coast southwest of Bordeaux, in the Landes forest. It has a sandy beach and a mild climate said to be favourable for inv ...

, in the heart of the

Landes de Gascogne The Landes de Gascogne (in Gascon, classic spelling ''las Lanas de Gasconha'', Fébusienne spelling ''leus Lanes de Gascougne''), or Gascony Moors, is a natural region of France of nearly . It extends over three departments: Gironde, Landes and ...

Characteristics

The dune has a volume of about 60,000,000 m³, measuring around 500 m wide from east to west and 2.7 km in length from north to south (1.35 km²). Its height was 106.60 m above sea level as of 2018. The dune is considered a

foredune A foredune is a dune ridge that runs parallel to the shore of an ocean, lake, bay, or estuary. Foredunes consist of sand deposited by wind on a vegetated part of the shore. Foredunes can be classified generally as ''incipient'' or ''established'' ...

, meaning a dune that runs parallel to a shoreline, behind the high tide line of a beach. The dune has been observed to move landward, slowly pushing the forest back to cover houses, roads and portions of the

Atlantic Wall The Atlantic Wall (german: link=no, Atlantikwall) was an extensive system of coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defence against an anticip ...

. To back this evidence of coastal movement, maps from 1708 and 1786 both place areas with the name Pilat to the south and off-shore of the current dune's location. The area where the dune currently stands was referred to as "Les Sabloneys", or "The New Sands", until the 1930s, when it was renamed by real estate developer Daniel Meller as the Dune of Pilat. Pilat originates from the Gascon word ''Pilhar'', which refers to a heap or mound. On 24 January 2009, a peak windspeed of was recorded during a storm at the Dune of Pilat, damaging the dune.Windstorm at Dune du Pilat in 2009
, '' Metro France''.

History

The current location of Dune du Pilat housed temporary protohistoric camps for activities related to sea salt mining. The first archaeological discoveries began in 1922. On December 31, 2013, a tourist found a funeral urn and an accessory vase from the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

, 800 years BC in the sand at the foot of the dune. An excavation site mobilized about ten amateur archaeologists for two weeks in October 2014 to clarify the stratigraphic and environmental context of the reported discoveries.

Paragliding

Due to its exposed location along the sea and steep angle, the Dune of Pilat is a famous

paragliding Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like 'po ...

spot with great soaring conditions. Paragliding Dune de Pilat.jpg, Paragliders above the dune Paragliding Dune de Pilat 2.jpg, Paragliders above the dune

References

External links

The Great Dune of Pyla web site

Dune du Pilat
Multilingual website Dunes of France Landforms of Gironde Tourist attractions in Gironde {{Gironde-geo-stub