Ravni Zakan Kornati NP

Ravni Zakan in front of Kameni Zakan, Jancar, Unnamed Island, Gominjak and Lunga. From our helicopter flight with Zoran from www.eudora.hr , July 20th 2011. The Kornati archipelago is located in the northern part of Dalmatia (Croatia), south from Zadar and west from Sibenik. With 35 km in length and 140 island, some large, some small, in a sea area of about 320 km2, the Kornati are the densest archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. From northwest to southeast and from northeast to southwest they stretch for 13 km. „Am letzten Schöpfungstag wollte Gott sein Werk krönen, und so schuf er aus Tränen, Sternen und Atem die Kornaten“, schrieb der irische Schriftsteller George Bernard Shaw.

The name of the archipelago is the plural from of the name of the largest island, Kornat. In 1980 the eighty-nine southernmost of the 144-odd islands, islets and reefs of the Kornati archipelago were declared a National Park. Most of the terrain in the Kornati island is kart-limestone. The vegetation is very sparse maquis. There are many scented and medical herbs: sage, feather grass and Xeranthemum. Olive trees account for about 80 % of the land under cultivation, followed by vineyards, figs, orchards and vegetable gardens. There are no permanent settlements on Kornati. Simple houses in well-protected coves such as Vrulje, Kravjacica, Lavsa and others are used by mainland landowners as temporary shelters. Most of the land owners are from the island of Murter and Dugi Otok. Human presence on the Kornati island appear to extend back to the Neolithic Age, and the remains of Illyrian settlements were found. The presence of wealthy Romans is attested by moasic floors of Roman villas, and Kornat island has a small tower „Toreta“, that was probably built in the 6th century AD. Archeological sites in Strazisce and Tarac, and on Levrnaka and Lavsa provide evidence that during the Roman era life on Kornati was very active. During the long period of Venetian occupation, the island were used for resupplying the Venetian fleet.