Limestone towers rising above a river, forests of sharp stone pinnacles, and vast caverns beneath wooded hills can all belong to the same family of landscapes. Known as karst, these places develop as water dissolves soluble rock and finds pathways through it. Their appearance varies enormously, from exposed rock pavements to islands surrounded by the sea.
Limestone is especially associated with karst, although other soluble rocks can produce it too. Rock structure, climate, uplift, glaciation, and changing sea levels help shape the results. These 12 landscapes, spread across six continents, show how the interaction between rock and water can create very different scenery above and below ground.
🌄 1. Guilin and Yangshuo, China
The limestone hills around Guilin and Yangshuo in Guangxi form one of the most recognizable karst landscapes in the world. Steep-sided towers rise above rivers and lowlands, while groups of adjoining hills create layered horizons. Along the Li River, the combination of water, rock faces, and vegetation makes the shape of the landscape particularly easy to appreciate.
The region contains both tower karst, with prominent isolated hills, and cone karst, where conical hills occur in more closely connected groups. The Guilin component of the South China Karst World Heritage property protects representative examples of these landforms. Their present appearance reflects a long history of dissolution, river activity, and landscape development, with the hills and the lower ground between them forming parts of the same evolving system.
🌊 2. Hạ Long Bay and the Cát Bà Archipelago, Vietnam
In northeastern Vietnam, limestone islands and pillars rise abruptly from the sea around Hạ Long Bay and the Cát Bà Archipelago. Some stand alone, while others form clusters of steep, forested peaks. Cliffs, caves, and enclosed marine lakes add variety to a seascape whose most obvious feature is the contrast between vertical rock and surrounding water.
This is marine-invaded karst: a landscape of limestone hills and depressions that was subsequently flooded by the sea. Dissolution helped shape the earlier terrain, while changing sea levels and coastal processes contributed to its present form. The islands are therefore surviving high points within a much larger geological landscape, with some former depressions now occupied by water.
🌴 3. Gunung Mulu National Park, Malaysia
Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, combines tropical forest with limestone pinnacles, deep canyons, and enormous cave passages. The limestone around Gunung Api forms part of this karst landscape, while caves such as Deer Cave and the Clearwater system reveal the scale of the underground terrain.
Mulu’s scenery extends through several levels of the landscape, from forested slopes to hidden chambers and river passages. Its caves also support bats and swiftlets, connecting the geological setting with a rich biological community. The combination makes Mulu an example of tropical karst in which surface landforms, underground drainage, and forest ecosystems are closely linked.
🚣 4. Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park, Philippines
On Palawan, forested limestone hills conceal an underground river that flows through caves before emerging directly into the sea. Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park is known for this connection between the mountain landscape and the coast. Large chambers and mineral formations give the river passage a character quite different from an open surface valley.
The river’s lower section is brackish and influenced by tides, bringing marine conditions into the subterranean system. Above ground, the protected landscape includes several forest types and coastal habitats. This combination shows how karst drainage can connect hills, caves, forests, and the sea within one wider environment.
🪨 5. Tsingy de Bemaraha, Madagascar
Tsingy de Bemaraha in western Madagascar contains a deeply dissected limestone landscape of sharp pinnacles, narrow fissures, and steep rock faces. The closely spaced stone spires create the appearance of a forest made from rock, with vegetation growing between and around the pale formations. The Manambolo River gorge adds another dramatic feature to the surrounding terrain.
The pinnacles belong to a larger limestone massif shaped through a long history of weathering and dissolution. Their irregular surfaces and deep openings create a varied physical environment, while neighboring forests support Madagascar’s distinctive wildlife. Bemaraha is part of the Andrefana Dry Forests World Heritage property, where geological scenery and the conservation of endemic ecosystems are closely connected.
🌿 6. The Burren, Ireland
The Burren in western Ireland offers broad limestone pavements, terraced hills, and a mosaic of exposed rock and vegetation. On the pavements, blocks called clints are separated by fissures known as grikes. These patterns give the ground a tiled appearance, although their uneven surfaces and plant-filled gaps reveal a landscape shaped by natural processes.
Past glaciation helped expose and reshape the limestone, while water continues to dissolve its surface and widen fractures. This combination is often described as glacio-karst. Sheltered fissures, grassland, scrub, and woodland provide varied growing conditions, making the Burren a biologically rich landscape as well as a geological one. Its appeal lies in details visible underfoot as much as in the wider views.
🏞️ 7. Škocjan Caves, Slovenia
The Škocjan Caves in Slovenia’s Kras region contain a spectacular underground canyon formed by the Reka River. Water passes through immense passages, rapids, and waterfalls, making the system an example of active drainage beneath a limestone landscape. The scale of the river canyon is one of the site’s defining features.
Above and around the caves, collapsed depressions known as dolines help connect the subterranean scenery with openings at the surface. Together, the river passages, chambers, and collapse features reveal several processes operating within one karst system. Škocjan is especially striking because the water remains an obvious, moving part of the landscape, allowing its role in shaping the rock to be understood directly.
💧 8. Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia
Plitvice Lakes National Park is known for its linked lakes, waterfalls, forested slopes, and limestone canyons. The surrounding terrain belongs to the Dinaric karst region, where limestone and dolomite influence drainage and the shape of the landscape. Differences between these rocks help explain why water is retained in some areas and cuts through others.
The lakes also demonstrate a process that builds new features. Under suitable conditions, calcium carbonate carried in the water is deposited as tufa, also called travertine, forming natural barriers that help create lakes and cascades. Plitvice therefore combines the dissolving of carbonate rock with mineral deposition, producing a landscape in which water both removes material and contributes to new structures.
🌾 9. Viñales Valley, Cuba
Viñales Valley in western Cuba is distinguished by its mogotes: tall, rounded limestone hills that rise abruptly above the flatter valley floor. Their steep sides and dome-like profiles create a strong contrast with fields, farms, and scattered settlements below. The hills give the valley its recognizable outline within the Sierra de los Órganos.
Viñales is also a cultural landscape, with traditional farming practices forming an important part of its character. The geological scenery and agricultural land use are visible together, showing how people have worked within the spaces between the limestone hills. The resulting landscape combines karst landforms with a long history of rural settlement, rather than separating natural scenery from the human activities around it.
🕳️ 10. Mammoth Cave National Park, United States
Beneath the wooded landscape of south-central Kentucky lies Mammoth Cave’s extensive network of interconnected passages. Large chambers, branching routes, and underground streams reveal a limestone landscape with much of its complexity hidden below ground. Sinking streams and sinkholes are among the associated karst features in the wider park.
The cave network developed as water found routes through the rock and progressively enlarged them. Its passages preserve evidence of changing drainage conditions, while underground rivers continue to modify the system. Mammoth Cave shows why karst cannot always be judged from its skyline: a landscape of forested hills can contain an elaborate underground terrain that is far less apparent from the surface.
🌳 11. Peruaçu River Canyon, Brazil
Peruaçu River Canyon, within Cavernas do Peruaçu National Park in northern Minas Gerais, brings together steep cliffs, limestone arches, caves, and underground river passages. Its karst scenery includes large collapsed depressions and enormous openings that connect spaces below ground with the landscape above. These features make the boundary between canyon and cave especially striking.
Janelão Cave contains a river passage illuminated in places by vast natural skylights. Daylight reaching through these openings supports forest growing within the enclosed terrain, producing a contrast with the seasonally dry landscape above. Peruaçu is an example of how dissolution, river activity, and collapse can combine to create a succession of open and sheltered spaces within the same drainage system.
🌅 12. The Nullarbor Plain, Australia
The Nullarbor Plain stretches across southern Australia as an immense limestone landscape with a broad, comparatively flat surface. Much of its karst interest lies below that open terrain, in caves, caverns, and places where the surface has collapsed into sinkholes. The scale and openness of the plain give it a very different appearance from tropical tower karst.
Along the coast, the Bunda Cliffs form a dramatic edge to the limestone country, while inland openings provide glimpses of the hidden landscape beneath. The Nullarbor demonstrates how karst can develop in a semi-arid setting and remain visually subtle across large areas. Its character comes from the relationship between the expansive surface and the less visible terrain below.
🌱 Why These Landscapes Deserve Care
Karst landscapes often contain close connections between surface water, groundwater, caves, and springs. Pollution entering an open pathway can travel beyond the place where it began, while damage to rock formations or vegetation can affect distinctive habitats. Their scientific and ecological value extends beyond the most photographed viewpoint.
When visiting, use established routes and designated cave experiences, follow local access guidance, and leave rocks, fossils, plants, and mineral formations in place. The details that make karst memorable—a sheltered fissure, an intact cave formation, or a clear spring—are part of the wider landscape and deserve the same care as its largest cliffs and caverns.
🔗 Related Articles
- What Is Karst? A Beginner’s Guide to Limestone Landscapes
- What Is a Sinkhole? Formation, Types, and Famous Examples
- What Is a Limestone Pavement?
- Why Do Some Rivers Disappear Underground?
📚 Sources & Further Reading
- National Park Service — Karst Landscapes
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — South China Karst, Including Guilin
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Hạ Long Bay and the Cát Bà Archipelago
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Gunung Mulu National Park
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Tsingy de Bemaraha and the Andrefana Dry Forests
- Burren National Park — Geology and Habitats
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Škocjan Caves
- Plitvice Lakes National Park — Karst Landscape
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Viñales Valley
- National Park Service — Geology of Mammoth Cave National Park
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Peruaçu River Canyon
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Peruaçu’s Caves, Skylights, and River Landscape
- National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia — Nullarbor National Park
