Mammoth stone from Bulgaria south of Lake Beloslav.

Pobiti Kamani is Bulgarian and is probably best translated as 'bricks hammered into the ground', or perhaps even better as 'stones planted'. Better known as the Stone Forest, it is one of the rarest natural phenomena in the world. It is, after Tabernas in Spain, the most important desert in Europe. It is also one of the few places where desert-like vegetation grows. The special biodiversity including a few protected plant species can grow here because the field consists of sand dunes and different groups of rock formations, where there was once a seabed. The area is divided into seven large and seven small groups of rocks, on the north and south of Lake Beloslav. These stones consist mainly of hollow and massive cylinders, most of which reach a height of between five and seven meters. What is special is that the limestone pillars are clustered in groups. Some are upright, while others are stretched out. Some of the pillars have been broken into pieces, while others contain some rare fossils such as nummulite, mussels, cockles and giant snails. They look far from natural and it's almost like walking around in an old city on another planet. That is not surprising, since the stone forest in Bulgaria probably originated about fifty million years ago. Yet it is a strange sensation and very special to be here. Fun fact: The Stone Forest is the only place in Bulgaria where archaeologists have found evidence of human life in the Mesolithic era.