Best Karst Region

Gunung Mulu Karst is a vast limestone karst region located within Gunung Mulu National Park in Borneo, Malaysia. It’s notable for its extensive cave systems, including the Sarawak Chamber – the world's largest known underground chamber. The area contains significant geological formations and biodive...

The South China Karst region represents a globally significant karst landscape concentrated in Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan provinces of China. Characterized by dramatic limestone towers and sinkholes formed through millions of years of dissolution, it’s notable for its exceptional geological divers...

Trang An Karst landscape features dramatic limestone formations sculpted by water erosion in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, it represents a globally significant karst region. The area showcases extensive cave systems and wetland ecosystems alongside evidence of huma...

The Dinaric Karst stretches across southeastern Europe encompassing a significant portion of the Balkan Peninsula. This region is notable as the origin point for the geological concept of karst topography characterized by extensive limestone formations. It features dramatic river canyons and caves,...

The Ankarana Karst is a distinct geological region and protected nature reserve located in northern Madagascar. The landscape is defined by its extensive tsingy, a formation of sharp, eroded limestone pinnacles that create a harsh, maze-like surface environment. Beneath this rocky exterior lies a va...

The Waitomo Karst is an extensive limestone region located on the North Island of New Zealand, characterized by underground rivers, sinkholes, and caverns formed over millions of years. It is internationally known for its population of Arachnocampa luminosa, a bioluminescent glowworm species endemic...

The Picos de Europa is an alpine karst massif located in Northern Spain, spanning the autonomous communities of Asturias, Cantabria, and Castile and León. The region is characterized by dramatic limestone peaks, including some of the highest elevations in the Cantabrian Mountains, alongside deep gla...

The Dachstein Karst is a significant karst landscape within the Dachstein massif in the Northern Limestone Alps of Austria. It contains several notable cave systems, including the Dachstein Rieseneishöhle (Giant Ice Cave), known for its large subterranean ice formations, and the Dachstein-Mammuthöhl...

The Yucatan Karst is a limestone geological platform spanning the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Because the porous limestone prevents the formation of surface rivers, the region relies on an extensive network of underground cave systems and cenotes, which are natural sinkholes. These water sources we...

The Khammouane Karst is an extensive limestone region situated in central Laos, characterized by its heavily forested karst peaks and broad river valleys. The area is distinguished by its large, navigable underground river caves, most notably the Xe Bang Fai cave system, which is one of the largest...

The Zagros Karst in Iran and Iraq is a vast mountainous limestone region notable for its impressive sinkholes, salt glaciers, and being a major source of freshwater in the region.

Fiordland Karst is a remote karst landscape in New Zealand's Fiordland region, composed primarily of marble and limestone. It contains several notable cave systems, including the Aurora Cave system, which extends beneath the Southern Alps. The area is characterized by sinkholes, underground streams,...

The Taurus Mountains form a major mountain range across southern Turkey characterized by extensive limestone and karst geology. This topography features deep gorges, large poljes, and significant subterranean drainage systems. Notable karst features in the region include the Düden Caves and waterfal...

The Trieste Karst, also known as the Kras, is a limestone plateau extending across the border of northeastern Italy and southwestern Slovenia. The region is the type locality for karst topography, lending its name to the global geological term for landscapes shaped by the dissolution of soluble rock...

The Vercors Karst is a prominent limestone massif located in the French Prealps in southeastern France. It is characterized by extensive high-altitude plateaus, deep gorges, and highly developed subterranean cave networks, including the Gouffre Berger, which was the first cave explored deeper than 1...

The Nullarbor Plain is an extensive, arid limestone plateau spanning parts of South Australia and Western Australia along the Great Australian Bight. Its exposed carbonate bedrock supports a distinctive karst landscape containing caves, sinkholes, and thousands of narrow openings commonly called blo...

The Aggtelek Karst is a limestone region in northeastern Hungary adjoining the Slovak Karst across the border with Slovakia. Together, their caves form the UNESCO World Heritage property known as the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst. Its best-known feature is the Baradla-Domica system, a cro...

The Moravian Karst is a protected landscape area and nature reserve located north of Brno in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It is the most prominent karst region in the country, featuring over a thousand explored caves and gorges. The landscape is distinguished by the dramatic Maco...

The Cantabrian karst comprises limestone landscapes and extensive cave systems along Spain's northern coastal region and the Cantabrian Mountains. Its caves preserve major records of human occupation and Upper Paleolithic art, including the paintings at Altamira and decorated sites grouped within th...

The Slovak Karst is a prominent mountain range and the largest karstic plateau in Central Europe, located in southern Slovakia near the Hungarian border. Designated as part of a cross-border UNESCO World Heritage site, the region is characterized by its extensive limestone formations, deep canyons,...

The Jura Karst spans the Jura Mountains across France and Switzerland, recognized as the type locality for imbricate fold-and-thrust belts and featuring extensive sinkhole networks.

The Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, contain the famous Cheddar Gorge and an extensive network of limestone caves that have yielded significant prehistoric human remains.

The Murge is a rectangular karst plateau in the Apulia region of Southern Italy, notable for its dramatic dolines and the discovery of the 130,000-year-old Altamura Man.

The Bohemian Karst, situated southwest of Prague in the Czech Republic, is a protected landscape area notable for its limestone gorges and the extensive Koněprusy Caves.

The Edwards Plateau Karst in Texas, USA, is a limestone region notable for its extensive underground drainage that feeds the Edwards Aquifer, a crucial water source for San Antonio.