Tsingy De Bemaraha National Park

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The Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park is a national park located in Melaky Region, northwest Madagascar. The national park centers on two geological formations: the Great Tsingy and the Little Tsingy. Together with the adjacent Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve, the National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. == Background == The Tsingys are karstic plateaus in which groundwater has undercut the elevated uplands, and has gouged caverns and fissures into the limestone. Because of local conditions, the erosion is patterned vertically as well as horizontally. In several regions on western Madagascar, centering on the park and adjacent Nature Reserve, the superposition of vertical and horizontal erosion patterns has created dramatic "forests" of limestone needles.The word tsingy is indigenous to the Malagasy language as a description of the karst badlands of Madagascar. The word can be translated into English as where one cannot walk barefoot. == History == The limestone rocks known as the tsingy were formed by a deposit of fossils and seashells under the sea 200 million years ago when thick layers of calcite at the bottom of the lagoon formed a thick limestone bed. They have been shaped by rain water for the past 5 million years. In the 18th century, the Tsingy were the home of the Vazimba, the first inhabitants of Madagascar, who lived in caves surrounding limestone formations. SOURCESWikipedia

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