On June 26, 2009, the Dolomites — divided into nine groups, including the Pale di San Martino — were declared a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site for being among the most spectacular creations on Earth. Shaped over millennia by ice and water, they display incredible formations: spires, pinnacles, sheer rock faces, plateaus, and valleys that shift in color with the changing light and shadows of the day — pale in the sun, grey after a storm, pink at dawn and sunset.
They stand among the earliest witnesses of the Earth’s geological past, once forming coral atolls in the Triassic Sea, and are now guardians of a precious botanical and wildlife heritage vital to the ecosystem. It’s easy to see why they have long fascinated travelers and scholars first, and later climbers, artists, and tourists alike.
