Karaburun Peninsula, Albania

The Karaburun Peninsula (Albanian Gadishulli Karaburun ) is located in southwestern Albania before the city of Vlora. It limits the southern part of the Bay of Vlora from the sea and forms the eastern edge of the Strait of Otranto, which is only 71 kilometers wide at its narrowest point. Meet at Cape Kepi Gjuhëzës from the north each other the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea from the south.

Geography

The Karaburun Peninsula is about 15 kilometers long and between three and four and a half kilometers wide. The area of ​​the trending north-northwest peninsula is 62 square kilometers. It dominates porous limestone.

Karaburun is part of the Ceraunischen Mountains, which runs steeply rising along the southern Albanian coast and to the east of Llogara pass in two mountain ranges divides the Mali i Čikeš. Together with the south in the mountain range Rrëza e Kanalit forms the Karaburun Peninsula Akroceraunische the mountains, the coastal western chain. The highest elevations are the Maja Cadere ( 839 müa ) and Maja e Flamurit ( 826 müa ), which form a double top. South of the Maja e Flamurit the terrain drops steeply to Ravenaplateau (Mali Ravenës ) at 200 to 300 meters above sea level, on the south side to turn steeply to the mountain range of Rrëza e Kanalit whose tips are between 800 and 1500 meters high, to rise. The Rrëza e Kanalit ends at Llogara Pass, where the Akroceraunische meets the Ceraunische.

The Karaburun mountains falling on the west side very steeply into the sea. The coast of the peninsula is mainly in the west and north, very rocky and steep. Each incision site on the hillside forms a small bay. Along the cliffs there are numerous caves. The most famous is the Haxhi Ali cave, the largest sea cave in Albania. It is 30 feet deep, ten to 15 feet high and about nine feet wide. The eastern shore is less steep and has several bays and beaches. The northernmost point is Cape Kepi i Gallovecit. Only slightly more than three kilometers south-west of it is the Kepi Gjuhëzës, the westernmost point of the Albanian mainland. Only the small island of Sazan goes even further to the west. It is beyond the so-called Mezokanals about five kilometers north of Karaburun in the output of the Bay of Vlora.

Because there are at Karaburun very little water, the peninsula is uninhabited. However, it is - like the island of Sazan - used for military purposes by the Albanian Army. The only access to the peninsula through the naval base Pashaliman at the southern end of the Bay of Vlora in Orikum. From there, a simple driveway along the east coast until Kepi Gjuhëzës.

Fauna and Flora

The coast of the peninsula to the north, west and south is up to one nautical mile portion of the founded in 2010, National Marine Parks Karaburun - Sazan.

Due to the remoteness and the military use of nature is still largely untouched. Fauna and flora in this area are rich and varied. An area of 20,000 hectares, extending from the north end of the Karaburun Peninsula to Llogara, is protected as a nature reserve. There are plans to Llogara National Park to expand this nature reserve.

The flora of the Akroceraunischen Mountains is characterized primarily by maquis and forests, which are found mainly along watercourses and often pull in their slope cuts from the shore to the mountain top.

10 amphibian species, 28 reptile species, 105 bird species and 42 mammal species have the area as a habitat. Apart from the birds, these are more than half of the species occurring in Albania respectively. Among the mammals include carnivores, bats and marine mammals such as the endangered Mediterranean monk seal, one of which scientists were able to prove in 1999 traces on the western coast. In summer 2004, reported in interviews two fishermen to have seen Mediterranean monk seals in the waters off Karaburun and in the bay of Saranda. Probably covers the animals to populations in northern Greece, which occasionally draw in Albanian waters.

Wind farm

In June 2009, the Albanian government has approved the establishment of a wind farm on the Karaburun Peninsula despite protests from environmentalists. The configured by an Italian company plant could be Europe's largest onshore wind farm and should have a capacity of approximately 500 megawatts. The project is based on an early December 2008 in the presence of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and Silvio Berlusconi and signed agreement. Albanian media accuse the government that the project is not legal.

History

The name derives from the Turkish Karaburun Black Cape. Ceraunisches Mountains is mountain range of the lightning.

On rocks in the Gramata Bay on the south west coast of the peninsula there are ancient inscriptions and drawings of sailors. The oldest date from the 4th century BC in the Latin inscriptions from the first century, Mark Antony and Pompey find mentioned.

Pictures

Receipt of Haxhi Ali cave

Heart of Haxhi Ali cave