You must have eaten chocolates many times but you have ever heard about Chocolate Hills. Yes, It is true, there is a place in philippines which is known as chocolate hills. The Chocolate Hills are a geological formation in the Bohol province of the Philippines. Chocolate Hills are one of the most beautiful and popular sight of Bohol. People come from far away to see the beauty of this place. There are at least 1,260 hills but there may be as many as 1,776 hills spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres. These hills are look like some kind of cone shape. This area is surrounded by grasslands all around. The color of these hills always changes according to seasons. During the dry season, these green hills turns to brown color, which looks like as chocolate. That's why the chocolate name is given to these hills. The Chocolate Hills appear to be seemingly endless when viewed atop the hill in Carmen town. It is a famous tourist attraction of Bohol. The size of the hills vary from 30 meters to 120 meters in height. This area looks more impressive when viewed from a plane. These cone-shaped hills are actually made of grass-covered limestone. These hills vary in sizes from 30 to 50 metres high with the largest being 120 metres in height. When the grass-covered hills dry up and turn chocolate brown, then the whole area converted into seemingly endless rows of chocolate pieces.
The vegetation of the Chocolate Hills is dominated by grass species such as Imperata cylindrica and Saccharum spontaneum. Some geological theories behind the Chocolate Hills of Bohol is that the hills were the result of thousands of years of weathering of marine limestone. Others say that the Chocolate Hills of Bohol was formed ages ago by the uplift of coral deposits and the action of rain water and erosion. The grassy hills were once coral reefs that erupted from the sea in a massive geologic shift. Wind and water put on the finishing touches over hundreds of thousands of years. The area is now in the Philippine Tourism Authority’s list of tourist destinations in the Philippines. This area has been declared the country's third National Geological Monument and proposed for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Among the people there is a very interesting story about these chocolate hills. It is said that once there was a Giant named Arogo who was extremely powerful and youthful. He was madly in love with Aloya, who was a simple mortal. They lived together and were happy for a time until Aloya got sick and died. Aloya's death caused Arogo much pain and misery, and in his sorrow he could not stop crying. When his tears dried, the Chocolate Hills were formed. Of the 1,247 hills, two have been developed into resorts for tourism as of 2006. The original viewing station of the Chocolate Hills is a government-owned and operated resort called "Chocolate Hills Complex" located in Carmen, Bohol, about 55 km from Tagbilaran. The other way to view the Chocolate Hills is at Sagbayan Peak, a mountain resort in Sagbayan town. It is 18 km away from the Chocolate Hills complex in neighboring Carmen.
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