Stone Dolls
The stone town – Kuklicа is an area of over 120 naturally formed stone pillars, located in the village of Kuklica, near Kratovo in N. Macedonia. Kuklica is located 8 km northwest of Kratovo. Stone formations are located on the right bank of the valley of Kriva river. The area has an altitude of 415-420 m and extends to an area of 0, 3 km2.
Legend:
Once upon a time, a long long time ago in the village Kuklica lived a bricklayer who could not choose which of the two girls to marry, so he promised them both a wedding on a same day. Both girl had a same name. Yet, one of them wasn’t beautiful at all, but she was from one the richest families in the village , and the other one was poor but very, very beautiful.
The richer girl lived in Dolno Maalo , and the second in Gorno Maalo (other part of the village). However, the bricklayer decided to marry the rich girl. When the poor girl heard the music while waiting for the matchmakers to come and take her to her wedding, she decided to visit the other neighborhood and check what was happening. When she arrived, the wedding of the bricklayer and the rich girl has already started. She was broken and offended, she approached the groom and kissed him for the last time, then whispered: “May God allow that all of you get petrified, including me and you!”. After she kissed him, the curse became reality and all of the guests transformed into stone puppets. However, the matchmakers kept the smiles on their faces and the lovers were left stuck in an embrace, so the villagers in Kuklica named the place “Merry Wedding.”
Evalutaion of the land pyramids:
Two or three local paths will bring you around and give a view over this striking region. Simply off the way to Kratovo, it’s anything but difficult to discover and doesn’t require in excess of a half hour to visit.
According to Dr. Ivica Milevski, Associate Professor at the Institute of Geology, Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics at the University “St. Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje, the earth pyramids are the result of a combination of wind and water erosion over thousands of years. He claims that the soft volcanic tuff is washed away at a much faster rate than the harder andesite underneath it, resulting in periodic mounds and pillars of harder rock remaining while the sediment is washed away.
Earth pyramids (pillars) are specific landforms, phenomenon occurring in only few places in Republic of North Macedonia. According to our knowledge, these landforms are present in Mariovo and Bosava catchment, in Petrosnica catchment (Kozjacija), parts of Ovce Pole, Males and Pijanec and others. Around the World, the biggest site is in locality of Cappadocia, medieval Turkey, at area of some hundred km2. In locality of Kuklica, typical forms on smaller area exist. Their origin is result of accelerated soil erosion due to the negative relation of man to the natural environment, especially of deforestation. Formation of earth bars in locality of Kukle is active in present, especially on slopes of Zabel, were young forms in phases of creating are evident. In same time, erosion takes intensity in new areas around Kukle. This is result of natural-geographic factors. In other side, Man does not take care for protection of space, despite all negativities.
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The locale of Kuklica where the earth pyramids are found is made by volcanic shakes out of Kratovo-Zletovo palaeovolcanic territory. Underneath topsoil layer 20-50 cm profound (which is generally dissolved) is 1-2 m thick layer of erodible andesitic tuff from the more youthful ejection stages. Their creation and structure demonstrate combination in lacustrine waters (Hristov and Karajovanovic, 1969). Andesitic tuffs owerlays dissonantly on the upper Eocene dregs. They are white to yellow-like shaded, very erodible and quell to pluvial disintegration and with thickness of 20-30 m.
Underneath andesitic tuffs is a thin (0.5 m) layer of reduced volcanic rocks: dacite-andesitic ignimbrites which are the central point empowering developments of ordinary earth pyramids in the zone. Ignimbrites cover another layer of andesitic tuffs from more established profuse stages with the thickness of 20 m. At the point when revealed at first glance, because of weathering, ignimbrites deteriorate and separation to the more prominent or littler squares. These squares rather than the tuffs underneath are considerably more impervious to the pluvial disintegration. In that way, they secure the tuffs, i.e. have a job of “ensuring adapt”.
Accordingly, predominant place in the geologic structure of the Kuklica territory have andezitic tuffs who like volcanoclastic material are not really at risk of disintegration procedures, and which thickness empower production of ordinary landforms.
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Location:
8 km northwest of Kratovo
Coordinates:
Max. altitude:
420 m
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