The Bucegi Natural Park ( ro, Parcul Natural Bucegi) is a protected area ( natural park category V IUCN) situated in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

, in the administrative territory of counties

Brașov Brașov (, , ; german: Kronstadt; hu, Brassó; la, Corona; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the administrative centre of Brașov County. According to the latest Romanian census (2011), Brașov has a pop ...

, Dâmbovița and Prahova.

Location

The Natural Park is located in the south-central part of

, in the Bucegi Mountains of the

Southern Carpathians The Southern Carpathians (also known as the Transylvanian Alps; ro, Carpații Meridionali ; hu, Déli-Kárpátok) are a group of mountain ranges located in southern Romania. They cover the part of the Carpathian Mountains located between the Pr ...

Description

The Bucegi Natural Park with an area of 32.663 ha was declared a protected area by ''Law Number 5 of March 6, 2000'' (published in

Monitorul Oficial ''Monitorul Oficial al României'' is the official gazette of Romania, in which all the promulgated bills, presidential decrees, governmental A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, general ...

Number 152 of April 12, 2000) and represents a mountainous area (

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

pit cave A pit cave, shaft cave or vertical cave—or often simply called a pit (in the US) and pothole or pot (in the UK); jama in South Slavic languages scientific and colloquial vocabulary (borrowed since early research in the Western Balkan Dinaric ...

s, canyons, ridges,

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

s and

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s), that shelters a variety of flora and fauna. The park is famous for its

Babele Babele (meaning ''The old women'') is a name for an area on the Bucegi Mountains plateau in Romania, within the Southern Carpathians. Babele is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. The name comes from some mushroom shape ...

and

Sphinx A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon. In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...

features.

Habitats

Beech forests, bushes, alpine limestone grasslands, alpine rivers and herbaceous vegetation, mountain hay meadows, springs, limestone rocky slopes and seminatural dry grasslands.

Natural reserves

Protected areas included in the park: ''Abruptul Mălăiești - Bucșoiu - Gaura'' (1.634 ha) and ''Locul fosilifer Vama Strunga'' in Brașov County; ''Cocora Cave and Cheile Urșilor'' (307 ha) in Dâmbovița County;apmdb.anpm.ro - Agenția pentru Protecția Mediului Dâmbovița
retrieved on June 27, 2012 and ''Abruptul Prahovean Bucegi'' (3.478 ha) and ''Colții lui Barbeș Mountains'' (1.513 ha) in Prahova County.

References

{{Protected areas of Romania Protected areas of Romania Geography of Brașov County Geography of Dâmbovița County Geography of Prahova County Tourist attractions in Brașov County Tourist attractions in Dâmbovița County Tourist attractions in Prahova County Protected areas established in 1974