Drin Canyon

	Drin Canyon IUCN Category III - Natural Monument or Feature
	White Drin Gorge
location	Kosovo
surface	199 ha
Geographical location	42 ° 21 ' N , 20 ° 32' E Coordinates: 42 ° 21 '11 " N , 20 ° 32' 26" E
Setup date	1986
particularities	canyon

The Drin Gorge ( Albanian Gryka e Drinit të Bardhë ; Serbian Кањон Белог Дрима Kanjon Belog Drima ) or Fshajt Gorge is a gorge in the southwest of Kosovo through which the White Drin flows. The gorge is only around 900 meters long and up to 45 meters deep. At the southern exit of the gorge is the Fshajt Bridge ( Albanian Ura e Fshejtë ; Serbian Швањски мост Švanjski most ), an old Ottoman bridge that attracts divers from far away. The gorge and the bridge were declared a national natural monument in 1986.

Geography and geology

The gorge is located near the village of Xërxa in the large municipalities of Rahovec and Gjakova . The road from Gjakova to Prizren crosses the Drin at the Fshajt Bridge.

The Drin dug the canyon in a long geomorphological process. The incision in the limestone block from the Cretaceous period , which stretches as a bar from northeast to southwest through the Metochian plain, was created by protracted erosion in the post- Lacustrian period of a large Neogene lake .

The protected area around the gorge is 199 Hekat in size. In addition to its scenic beauty, it is also of paleontological importance. One rock by the bridge is called Adlerfelsen (Shkëmbi i Shqiponjës) , another Skanderbeg rock (Shkëmbi i Skenderbeut) . On the latter, Mexhid Yvejsi painted a portrait of Skanderbeg in 1968 on the 500th anniversary of his death .

Use and tourism

Fshajt bridge

Thanks to its location on an important transport route, the gorge is visited by many tourists and day trippers. Together with the single-arch Fshajt Bridge, it forms a major tourist attraction in the region.

A few buildings in the reserve are affecting the landscape.

Every year a competition at the bridge Diving instead.

Web links

Commons : Drin Gorge - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b State of Nature Report 2006 - 2007. (PDF) In: Agjensioni për Mbrojtjen e Mjedisit të Kosovës. Kosovo Institute for Nature Protection, 2008, p. 45 , accessed on April 27, 2017 (English).
^ ^A ^b Rexhep Ismajli, Mehmet Kraja: Kosova: A monographic Survey . Ed .: Kosova Academy of Sciences and Art. Pristina 2013, ISBN 978-9951-615-10-5 , p. 81 .
↑ Western Balkans Geotourism Mapguide: Drini i Bardhë (White Drin) Canyon, Kosovo ( Memento from May 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
↑ Gazmend Doli: Portreti i Skënderbeut në shkëmb. (No longer available online.) In: gazetakritika.net/. November 1, 2010, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved April 27, 2017 (Albanian).

[:1-1] State of Nature Report 2006 - 2007. (PDF) In: Agjensioni për Mbrojtjen e Mjedisit të Kosovës. Kosovo Institute for Nature Protection, 2008, p. 45 , accessed on April 27, 2017 (English).

[:0-2] A ^b Rexhep Ismajli, Mehmet Kraja: Kosova: A monographic Survey . Ed .: Kosova Academy of Sciences and Art. Pristina 2013, ISBN 978-9951-615-10-5 , p. 81 .

[3] Western Balkans Geotourism Mapguide: Drini i Bardhë (White Drin) Canyon, Kosovo ( Memento from May 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

[4] Gazmend Doli: Portreti i Skënderbeut në shkëmb. (No longer available online.) In: gazetakritika.net/. November 1, 2010, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved April 27, 2017 (Albanian).