Greater Blue Mountains are an area in the state of New South Wales, listed as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site in 2000. The landscape of the territory is extremely diverse - rugged plateaus, sheer cliffs, deep and inaccessible gorges, rivers and lakes teeming with life. The unique plants and animals that inhabit this area are living proof of Australia's ancient history. Australia and its incredible biodiversity.
The Great Blue Mountains are a 10,300 square kilometre forested plateau, located 60 kilometres from Sydney. In comparison, its area is twice twice the size of Brunei and almost one-third the size of Belgium.
The area is named for an unusual phenomenon: when the air temperature rises, the eucalyptus trees here evaporate their essential oils, so that the visible blue spectrum of sunlight spreads more widely than than other colours. This is why the human eye perceives the surrounding landscape as being bluish.
There are seven national parks within the Greater Blue Mountains - the Blue Mountains, Wollemi, Yengo, Nattay, Kanangra Boyd, Garden of Stones, and Silmer Lakes - and the Jenolan Karst Caves Nature Reserve.
The area doesn't actually consist of mountains in the usual sense, it's a deeply rugged plateau, the highest point of which is 1300 metres above sea level. It is believed that this geological structure of the plateau protects its inhabitants from climate change, which has allowed many species plants and animals to survive periods of global "restructuring" of our planet.
The most famous plants of the Blue Mountains are, of course, eucalyptus - there are 91 species of them! Twelve of them are endemic, meaning they are not found anywhere else in the world. For scientists, it's a laboratory for studying the evolution of these amazing ancient trees. And it was here in 1995 that they discovered dinosaur-like Vollema pines, thought to have disappeared from the face of the Earth millions of years ago.
Among the gorges and uplands of the Blue Mountains live more than 400 species of animals, including rare and endangered species such as the mottled marsupial marten, koala, giant marsupial bat, long-nosed potoroo, etc.
