Geschichte: The striking red rocks of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Calanques of Piana, seem to come alive with endless imagination. Around every bend, the weathered cliffs reveal familiar shapes – a face here, a dog there, a dolphin just above. We were delighted to spot the famous heart-shaped hole formation and what looked just like a polar bear – our favorite animal. What a wonderful coincidence!
Geologie: The rock is a granite characteristic of western and southern Corsica. It formed more than 250 million years ago when magma rose from deep within Earth, intruded into the crust, became trapped, and slowly cooled and solidified. Its reddish color comes from the pink mineral potassium feldspar, as well as from weathered iron (‘rust’), which has formed a thin coating on the mineral grains and along tiny cracks in the rock.