Classroom lesson · Djavolja Varos - the stone tower forest · 🇷🇸 Serbia

Djavolja Varoš - The Stone Towers

Hundreds of stone pillars wearing little stone hats

What is it?

Djavolja Varoš (say: JA-vol-ya VA-rosh) is an amazing natural wonder in southern Serbia: a hillside covered in more than 200 tall, thin stone pillars, many with a flat rock balanced on top like a little hat.

Tell me more

The towers were not built by anyone, nature made them. Over many thousands of years, rain slowly washed away the soft soil of the hillside, but wherever a hard rock sat on top, it acted like an umbrella and protected the earth beneath it. The protected columns were left standing tall while everything around them washed away.

The pillars keep changing very slowly. Some grow taller as more soil washes off, while old ones tumble and new ones appear. It is a place that is always, very gently, being reshaped by water and weather.

People long ago thought such a strange place must be magical, so they made up legends about it, which is how it got its dramatic name. Today it is a protected natural monument that visitors hike to see, careful not to disturb the fragile stone towers.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01The cap rocks protect the pillars from rain. Can you think of other things that act like an umbrella or shield?
  2. 02These towers took thousands of years to form. What does that tell us about how slowly nature can work?
  3. 03People made legends to explain a strange place. Why do unusual landscapes inspire stories?
Try this

Classroom activity

Erosion drawing. Imagine a sand tower with a flat shell on top, and one without. Rain falls on both. Draw what happens to each over time, and explain why the 'capped' tower lasts longer.