The Quixadá Monoliths Natural Monument ( pt, Monumento Natural dos Monólitos de Quixadá) is a formation of
inselbergs in the state of
Ceará
Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the ...
, Brazil, that has been designated a
natural monument.
Location
The Quixadá Monoliths Natural Monument in the municipality of
Quixadá is a fully protected conservation unit created through Ceará state decree 26805 of 25 October 2002.
The natural monument was established to protect the rare and scenic inselbergs in the region, which have great ecological and tourist interest, and to protect the fragile ecology of the central
Sertão against the risk of human intervention.
It covers an area of .
The inselbergs lie in the dry
Caatinga biome.
They are residual formations remaining after erosion in the semi-arid environment.
There are cave paintings and other archaeological remains on the site that date to prehistoric times.
The Barragem do Cedro (Cedar Dam) was built between 1890 and 1906 using stone masonry, cement and steel, at the foot of the
Pedra da Galinha Choca (Brooding Hen Rock), the most famous of the monoliths.
On 30 January 2015 the dam was placed on the tentative list as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
Conservation
The Quixadá Monoliths Natural Monument is classed as
IUCN protected area categories
IUCN protected area categories, or IUCN protected area management categories, are categories used to classify protected areas in a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The enlisting of such areas is part ...
III (natural monument or feature).
The unit is administered by Superintendência Estadual do Meio Ambiente Ceará (Semace), the state environmental agency.
The area is already partly under the legal responsibility of the
National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN: Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional), since it holds little-explored archaeological sites, so its status is under review.
It is prohibited to remove, dismantle or deface the rock formations, or to deploy equipment in the natural structures.
Civil works, earthworks and opening and maintaining roads are prohibited if they would cause substantial ecological changes.
The unit is vulnerable to human activities such as deforestation, burning and mining.
File:Inselbergs quixada.JPG, Town and inselbergs
File:AnderpsQuixada 014.jpg, Bike riders beside monolith
File:Dam's Rock.jpg, Dam's Rock
File:Pedra galinha choca quixada ce.JPG, Pedra Galinha Choca
Notes
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Quixada Monoliths Natural Monument
2002 establishments in Brazil
Protected areas of Ceará
Natural monuments of Brazil