What's the largest natural arch in Europe ?

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visentin

 
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What's the largest natural arch in Europe ?

by visentin » Wed May 04, 2011 10:37 am

As an introduction, this albumfor those who haven't seen it.
After watching Eric's latest magnificent pictures of Pravčická Brana, often said to be Europe's largest with 16m both in height and width, and Vid's newest pictures of Pont d'Arc on the Ardèche river, I wondered if it was really the largest, seeing so many other impressive arches in all limestone mountain zones of southern Europe.
Popped on this site describing "L'arche naturelle de Chartreuse", said here to be Europe's largest too (without dimensions mentioned however), and Alp's largest on other pages :
http://siou.free.fr/General/Pages/mount ... ando2.html
Remembering other large arches I've seen, I just wondered if both Etretat sea arches in the french Normandy were not larger as well, especially the Manneporte, whose dimentions I failed to find on internet, wikipedia and so on. But the Manneporte cape is said to be 60mh; if we watch carefully the picture, the arch is almost mid-height, so let's say 25m at least, and the width kind of same scale, which makes it easily concurring with Pravčická Brana.
http://media.lonelyplanet.com/lpimg/286 ... review.jpg
As for Pont d'Arc on the Ardèche, it seems that no doubt are remaining, 60 m wide and 40 m high :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_d%27Arc
Any other ideas ? Lots of googling !

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visentin

 
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Re: What's the largest natural arch in Europe ?

by visentin » Wed May 04, 2011 3:20 pm

Judging by your amount of posts, Belgian weather must be catastrophic compared to the Polish one :D
Talking seriously, it's kind of amazing. Sunny bike ride on monday in the mountains, heavy snowfall yesterday, and sun again today ! (however fresh; I had to remove the frost on my car windows today morning !)
And back to the topic. Any arches in Belgium ? Don't you have one of those on the cliffs coasts ?

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WouterB

 
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Re: What's the largest natural arch in Europe ?

by WouterB » Wed May 04, 2011 11:12 pm

Cliff coasts, in Belgium? You kidding me? :D

This is what the Belgian coast looks like:
Image

I'm guessing you'll have to look at Spain for some other nice arches. I remember there were some when I was still living in Mallorca, but can't remember the names or places.

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Diego Sahagún

 
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Re: What's the largest natural arch in Europe ?

by Diego Sahagún » Wed May 04, 2011 11:29 pm

In Italy that's one of the most important natural arcs:

http://www.veneto.to/web/guest/itinerar ... 76&lang=it

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Diego Sahagún

 
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Re: What's the largest natural arch in Europe ?

by Diego Sahagún » Wed May 04, 2011 11:38 pm

Some interesting sites about natural arcs in the world:

http://www.taringa.net/posts/imagenes/9 ... undo_.html (in Spanish)

http://www.naturalarches.org/links2.htm
Last edited by Diego Sahagún on Wed May 04, 2011 11:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Diego Sahagún

 
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Re: What's the largest natural arch in Europe ?

by Diego Sahagún » Wed May 04, 2011 11:54 pm

Here in Central Spain:

Image
El Hueso (La Pedriza)


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visentin

 
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Re: What's the largest natural arch in Europe ?

by visentin » Thu May 05, 2011 8:41 am

Thanks Diego !
Worth doing a sort of true classification such the data on internet are various...

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Proterra

 
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Re: What's the largest natural arch in Europe ?

by Proterra » Sun May 22, 2011 8:55 am

WouterB wrote:Cliff coasts, in Belgium? You kidding me? :D

This is what the Belgian coast looks like:


Not really...

Image

Belgian coast look more like this:

Image

I've read somewhere, that after Monaco, it's the most built-up coast line in Europe...
I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don't have as many people who believe it.

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lcarreau

 
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Re: What's the largest natural arch in Europe ?

by lcarreau » Sun May 22, 2011 2:37 pm

Here's a CLOSE-up of the beach ...

Image
"Turkey Vultures always vomit when they get nervous."


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