Dăbuleni () is a town of

Dolj County Dolj County (; originally meant ''Dol(no)-Jiu River, Jiu'', "lower Jiu", as opposed to ''Gorj'' (''upper Jiu'')) is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Oltenia, with the capital city at Craiova. Demographics In 2011, ...

Oltenia Oltenia (), also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions – with the alternative Latin names , , and between 1718 and 1739 – is a historical province and geographical region of Romania in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Da ...

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

. It was declared a town in 2004 (Law no. 83/2004). One village, Chiașu, is administered by the town. Dăbuleni is known for the sandy areas surrounding it; since the 1980s, those areas have become part of an desert, known as the

Oltenian Sahara The Oltenian Sahara () is a name given to an area in the Romanian region of Oltenia covering the territory between the city of Calafat and the town of Dăbuleni, spanning an area of about , or 6% of Dolj County. In 2023, the desertified area has ...

. The town is the only place in Europe where a museum dedicated to sand exists. If the north part of the town is a desert, the south part is a

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

flooding area known as the or (the "Motherland of the Melons" or "of the Watermelons"), from which the Dăbuleni melons are famous in all of Romania. Dăbuleni is twinned since 2014 with

Vaugneray Vaugneray () is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France. On 1 January 2015, Vaugneray annexed the neighboring commune of Saint-Laurent-de-Vaux. It is since 2014 twinned with the Romanian town of Dăbuleni. Population The populat ...

, which is in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Irrigation near Dăbuleni

With water pumped from the

, an

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

scheme was developed during 1971 to 1975 for some 100 square kilometres of fertile land in southern

Culture

Sand Museum of Dăbuleni

The Sand Museum of Dăbuleni () is a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

in Dăbuleni that has a size of . Its entrance is free and it is often visited by researchers and common people. The Sand Museum is located in the

, an area of around in the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

, in the south of the

(near the

), where the town of Dăbuleni is located. Romania has been claimed to be the only country with a museum dedicated to sand in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

or even the world.

References

Towns in Romania Populated places in Dolj County Localities in Oltenia {{Dolj-geo-stub