A chain of sixteen terraced lakes in central Croatia, each flowing into the next over travertine barriers, creating an impossible sequence of waterfalls in colours from emerald to deep cobalt.
The lakes of Plitvice were not designed by any force with aesthetics in mind. They were designed by chemistry — specifically by the interaction of calcium carbonate, water, and algae over ten thousand years. The result looks as if someone had arranged turquoise mirrors on a forest hillside and then connected them with white lace.
There are 16 lakes in total, arranged in two groups — the Upper and Lower Lakes — descending over a 133-metre elevation difference. Each lake flows into the one below it over travertine barriers: natural dams of calcified plant matter that grow at roughly one centimetre per year and have been growing since the last ice age. The barriers are constantly forming and changing shape as water flows over them. The lakes are geologically alive.
The colour of the water changes with depth, season, and the angle of light — mint green in the shallows, deep jade in the middle distance, cobalt and indigo in the deepest pools. In autumn, the surrounding beech and oak forest turns gold and copper, framing the lakes with color that intensifies the improbable blue below. In winter, ice covers the upper lakes and snow drapes the waterfalls.
Bears and wolves live in the forest surrounding the park. Wooden walkways cross directly over the lake surfaces, allowing visitors to walk across water so clear that the barrier below — four metres down — is visible in detail. The effect is of walking on glass above another world.