Deliblato sands

A unique Place of extremes

- sand dune system with coniferous forest and cacti growing at the same place,
- the only European desert, and it's a home of at least 20 species of rare orchids and endemic plants
- Birdwatching sight
- Hunting ground

On the photo the great feather grass (Stipa pennata L.)

Deliblato sand is located in the southern part of Banat between the river Danube and the western Carphatian slopes. It is 354 km long and around 11 km wide and it extends as an ellipse in the direction of southeast northwest.
Deliblato sands represents a unique phenomenon in Europe by its genesis, orography, climate and specific flora and fauna, so it was called the European Sahara at one time.
The region is famed for its high degree of endemism, including many unique plants, reptiles and insects. It is also home to one of the greatest variety of mammals in Europe, with such rarities as European Molerats, Marbled Polecats and at least three packs of Grey Wolves.
The Deliblato Sands is a geo-morphological formation of eolian origin, of exceptional specific beauty and multiple scientific importance. It is of diluvial origin. It is an isolated complex of sand masses with a distinctly undulating dune relief on an area of over 380 sq. km, of elongated ellipsoid shape, surrounded by the expanses of the cultured steppe of the Panonian plain. The dunes of yellow and gray sand with maximum elevations of around 200m above sea level (Pluc - 192 m; Crni vrh - 189 m.) stretch in a straight southeast-northwest direction like the whole complex of the Sands.The physical properties of the sand and soil are behind this areas specific hydrology and meso-climate. There are no surface watercourses and the only hydrological facilities are dug and drilled wells (some thirty of them), from 100-400m deep, and three permanent natural waterholes in smaller depressions in the south-eastern part. The masses of the windblown sand of what used to be the "European Sahara" are today mainly tied down by vegetation, restored by man in planned fashion during the past 170 years. About 16,000 ha is under forest - mainly cultivated pure stands of Scotch and black pine, black locust, poplar,etc., and somewhat less under mixed stands of linden, English and pubescent oak, poplar, flowering ash, and other species. In addition to the anthropogenic forests, in the Deliblato Sands there are smaller preserved remains of one time autochthonous forests of English oak with linden and Lily-of-the-valley (Convalaria majalis).

Birds include:Glossy Ibis, Bittern, Little Bittern, Squacco Heron, Great White Egret, Spoonbill, Ferruginous Duck, Garganey, White-tailed Eagle, Imperial Eagle, Marsh Harrier, Osprey, Goshawk, Saker Falcon, Scops Owl, European Nightjar, Black Woodpecker, European Bee-eater, Hoopoe, European Roller, Wryneck, Sand Martin (up to 18.000 pairs), Tawny Pipit, Red-backed Shrike, Barred Warbler, Great Reed Warbler, Marsh Warbler, Northern Wheatear.