Tsingy de Bemaraha

The Tsingy de Bemaraha, in western Madagascar's Melaky Region, is a vast limestone karst plateau cut by a dense forest of razor-sharp limestone pinnacles, locally called tsingy, formed from a thick limestone deposit laid down on an ancient seabed and later uplifted above sea level. Rainwater percolating through the porous limestone dissolved the rock along vertical joints over millions of years, first carving extensive networks of caves and underground rivers, and as surface dissolution continued and cave roofs collapsed, the rock between the fissures was left standing as an impassably dense array of needle-sharp pinnacles reaching up to 30 meters. The name tsingy is thought to derive from a Malagasy phrase meaning "where one cannot walk barefoot," and the reserve's largely inaccessible pinnacle forest has made it both a geological landmark and an isolated refuge for endemic wildlife, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.