1000 Wonders of the World!
Menu
Lopé National Park
CC BY-SA 4.0 | Author: Ngangorica | Full Size | More Pics >

Lopé National Park

VisitedFavoriteWanted
Rank: 1001 UNESCO
Wonder Type: Natural
Country: Gabon
Best of: Park, Wildlife
Description:
The Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda demonstrates an unusual interface between dense and well-conserved tropical rainforest and relict savannah environments with a great diversity of species, including endangered large mammals, and habitats. The site illustrates ecological and biological processes in terms of species and habitat adaptation to post-glacial climatic changes. It contains evidence of the successive passages of different peoples who have left extensive and comparatively well-preserved remains of habitation around hilltops, caves and shelters, evidence of iron-working and a remarkable collection of some 1,800 petroglyphs (rock carvings). The property’s collection of Neolithic and Iron Age sites, together with the rock art found there, reflects a major migration route of Bantu and other peoples from West Africa along the River Ogooué valley to the north of the dense evergreen Congo forests and to central east and southern Africa, that has shaped the development of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. [More Details]
This article uses material from UNESCO World Heritage List article "Lopé National Park", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike 3.0 IGO License.