In case you didn’t know, Madagascar is home to the world’s largest stone forest. An almost impenetrable limestone labyrinth of spiky, grey rocks known as Tsingy formed over millennia of erosion by wind and water.
Tsingy is a Malagasy word that means “walk on tiptoes” and refers to the razor-sharp peaks of the rocks that would be difficult to navigate without the man-made walkways and bridges that traverse the geological wonder.
The Tsingy de Bemaraha is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of Madagascar’s must-see attractions.
Travelers are always amazed at the unique formations and the animals that call the unlikely environment their home.
Experiencing this otherworldly landscape is absolutely not to be missed and can be experienced when you visit Madagascar.
However, it will be helpful to note that the park is very hard to get to as it can take five days to travel to the area from the nearest city and, once there, it is also extremely difficult to explore – it can take an entire day to travel as much as a half-mile, hence it receives few visitors.
While its inhospitable nature frustrates human explorers, the park acts somewhat like a biological fortress for the species it protects.
Steven Goodman, a biologist with the Field Museum in Chicago who has lived and worked in Madagascar for 20 years, describes the region as “a refuge within paradise,” a place where a kind of biology more familiar a century ago can still be practiced and where simply walking around might put you face-to-face with a creature never seen before.
“You can move between valleys and find different things,” Goodman said. “The tsingy formations of Madagascar are one of the places on Earth that hold extraordinary biological treasures. You just have to go in and look around.”
Within its confines, one can find 11 different species of lemur, more than 100 species of birds, 45 species of reptiles, several types of bats, and unique animals such as the fossa, the ring-tailed mongoose, and the leaf-tailed gecko.
Those biologists who do venture into the park to explore nearly always find new species they’ve never seen before.
