The are

sand dunes 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, fl ...

located outside the city center of Tottori in

Tottori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Tottori Prefecture is the least populous prefecture of Japan at 570,569 (2016) and has a geographic area of . Tottori Prefecture borders Shimane Prefecture to the west, Hiro ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. At a length of and less than wide, it is the largest sand dune in Japan. The sand dunes are part of

San'in Kaigan Geopark The is a geopark in Japan. The area was declared a Japanese Geopark in 2008, and a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2010. The underlying themes of the geopark are "geological features, the natural environment, people's lives, and the formation of the Se ...

, which is part of The UNESCO Global Geoparks.

History

The sand formations were created when sediment deposits carried from the

Chūgoku Mountains is a mountain range in the Chūgoku region of western Japan. It runs in an east–west direction and stretches approximately from Hyōgo Prefecture in the east to the coast of Yamaguchi Prefecture. The range also reaches under the Pacific Ocean ...

by the Sendai River were thrown away into the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...

. Strong winds then shaped the dunes over a span of 100,000 years. The area of the dunes has been steadily decreasing due to a government

reforestation Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands ( forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting. Management A de ...

program following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Concrete barriers have been built along the coast to prevent the formations from eroding. Authorities have adopted measures to stop the shrinkage of the dunes, partly because they attract a significant amount of tourism to the area.

Gallery

Tottori-Sakyu Tottori Japan.JPG, View from the biggest dune Tottori sanddunes camel.jpg, A camel for tourists

References

External links

Tottori Prefecture Guidebook
{{Authority control Articles containing video clips Dunes of Japan Natural monuments of Japan Landforms of Tottori Prefecture Tourist attractions in Tottori Prefecture

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links