Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia - The Magical World of Living

Nature has given many beautiful gifts to world since the beginning of creation. If we start counting all these gifts then it will never end. The most beautiful gifts the nature has given to us are in the form of beautiful or stunning places. The Plitvice Lakes National Park of Croatia is one of these places. Plitvice Lakes National Park is one of the oldest and the largest national park in Croatia. It is located in the mountainous karst area of central Croatia, at the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within the small beautiful world of this national park, there is a combination of 16 lakes linked by waterfalls, bridges natural and man-made, and 300 square kilometers of wild beauty full of bears, wolves, boars, and birds. It was founded in 1949. In 1979, Plitvice Lakes National Park was included in the UNESCO World Heritage list. The area of this national park is around 296.85 square kilometres. Around 90% of this area is part of Lika-Senj County, while the remaining 10% is part of Karlovac County. With its stunning natural beauty, this national park has always attracted nature lovers and tourists around the world. Each year, more than 1 million visitors are recorded. The national park is most-famous for its lakes arranged in cascades. These lakes are a result of the confluence of several small rivers and subterranean karst rivers. The 16 lakes that can be seen from the surface are grouped into the 12 Upper Lakes and the four Lower Lakes. The sixteen lakes are divided into an upper and lower cluster formed by runoff from the mountains, descending from an altitude of 636 to 503 m over a distance of some eight km, aligned in a south-north direction. The lakes are beautiful all year round, but especially when mirroring magical fall colors or the lacy frozen branches of the surrounding trees. The overall water body area of this park is about 2 km2. The two largest lakes, Prošćansko jezero and Kozjak, cover about 80 percent of the overall water body area. These lakes are also the deepest, with a depth of 37 and 47 metres.

The names of these 16 lakes are:

1. Prošćansko jezero
2. Ciginovac
3. Okrugljak
4. Batinovac
5. Veliko jezero
6. Malo jezero
7. Vir
8. Galovac
9. Milinovo jezero
10. Gradinsko jezero
11. Buk
12. Kozjak
13. Milanovac
14. Gavanovac
15. Kaluđerovac
16. Novakovića brod

The upper 12 are the upper lakes (Gornja jezera) and 4 lower are the lower lakes (Donja jezera). The Plitvice Lakes area has always been regarded as part of the historic regions of Lika and Kordun. The Zadar, Zagreb and Rijeka are the nearest airports and Josipdol and Plaški are.the nearest train stations. By public transport the lakes can easily be reached by direct bus lines from Zagreb, Karlovac, Zadar.