Avatar Hallelujah Mountain

Avatar Hallelujah Mountain is a quartz sandstone pillar in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, Hunan Province, China, part of the Wulingyuan Scenic Area's forest of stone towers. Known before 2010 as the Southern Sky Column, it rises 1,080 meters and was renamed to honor the film Avatar after its creators cited Zhangjiajie's pillars as an inspiration for the film's floating mountains. Unlike the limestone karst towers of Guilin, these pillars formed through physical rather than chemical weathering, as winter ice expansion and the roots of plants growing on them break the sandstone apart while streams carry the loosened material away. Zhangjiajie National Forest Park was designated China's first national forest park in 1982, and the wider Wulingyuan area became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.