Karst

Barren, stony limestone plateau in the Dinaric Alps of SW Slovenia; extending c.80 km/50 mi from the R Isonzo (NW) to the Kvarner Gulf (SE); notable caves at Postojna; the name has come to be used in geography to describe limestone topography of this kind.

Kras (Carso in Italian), also called the Classical Karst or the Kras Plateau, is a limestone borderline plateau region of southwestern Slovenia extending into northeastern Italy. It lies between the Vipava valley, the Vipavska brda, the most westerly part of Brkini hills, Gulf of Trieste and a short part of Italian state border between the Gulf of Trieste and the Vipava River.

The plateau rises quite steeply above the neighboring landscape, with the exception of the southeastern side, where the steepness is less prounounced. Because Kras steeply descends towards the Adriatic Sea (see: Kraški rob), it is less exposed to the beneficial climatological effects of the sea.

Kras is famous for its caves. In Slovenia, they include Vilenica (the oldest tourist cave in the world), Lipica cave, Divača cave, Kačna cave, Postojna cave and Škocjan caves (UNESCO world heritage site), while in Italy there is the Grotta Gigante (the biggest tourist cave in the world, with a special horizontal pendulum that measures the ebb and flow effect of the moon on the earth).

Most of Kras is located in Southwestern Slovenia on an area of 429 square kilometres, and has a population of about 19,000 people. The town of Sežana is the center of Kras on the Slovene side of the border;

Natural conditions, including the bora (burja) wind, and the local way of life all shaped the elements of Kras architecture, creating simple but well-defined forms.