CIMERRIAN DOBROGEA ASPIRING GEOPARK

The aspiring Cimmerian Dobrogea Geopark is proposed for a territory of 2528 km2 in Tulcea County, which has 146,951 inhabitants and 28 localities. It is an area of unique natural and cultural heritage, to the west and south of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, and includes the area of the early alpine (chimeric), deformed since the Upper Triassic (about 220 million years ago), which overlaps the formations Paleozoic with a Hercynian history (290-270 million years). The upper Cretaceous deposits of the “Babadag Basin” (in turn related to the formation of the western Black Sea basin) seal the chimeric structures. On the territory of the Geopark there are two paleontological reserves included in Natura 2000 sites, several natural reserves of mixed type, and also the Deșli Caira hill, a candidate for the international stratotype (GSSP) of the base of Anisian. The geological heritage also includes a number of geosites in Paleozoic bedrock and Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits, as well as numerous abandoned quarries and mine workings. The cultural heritage includes tumuli (isolated or grouped), fortresses and barracks along the fortified border of the Roman empire in the province of Moesia inferior, inner fortresses, but also many other archaeological sites, which prove the continuity of Paleolithic habitation in this territory.