Bali Topography

Topography of Bali.
Bali is noted for the great beauty of its landscape,from coastal lowland to exhilarating high moutain lake s,barren limestone plateaus to thick monsoon forest.Hills and mountains are everywhere and the surface of the island is scored by fast-flowing rivers,deep ravines,rugged saddles,and alluvial slopes covered in rich volcanic assh.Except for the coastalplains,there are few flat areas.A west-to east volcanic chain( an extension of Java's central range )divides the island in half.Crater lakes are found at Batur and Bratan,Buyan and Tamblingan in the rich submontane rainforest area around Bedugul.Bali's mountains,floating among the clouds and covered in tall forest,stand in contrast to the wild and rugged beauty of the volcanic craters,some of which are still active.

The south-central plains are intensively cultivated.Terrace rice fields dominate the landscape-myriad small rectangles of still water mirroring the cloids.As you leave the heavily farmed southern plains and head north,the landscape change from cascadeof rice fields to gardens of onions,cabbages and papayas thriving in the cooler climate.Thatched-palm huts change to sturdy cottages made of wood,tile and stone,built to withstand the heavy rains.

In the alphine highlands of Bali are mountain stream,prehistoric tree-ferns,wildflowers,creepers,orchid,leeches,butterflies,bird,and screaming monkeys,while tall pines and cypress soar high above the mountain village of Bedugul,Kintamani,and Penelokan.The island's far western region,known as Pulaki,is an unspoiled,under populated marine and forest wilderness.Legend has it Bali's first peple had their origins here in a lost,invisible city.In the far north is a sharp drop from the mountain to a narrow strip of fertile of the coastal plain around Singaraja.The lowland coastal fringeof the north is narrow,and the absence of rivers makes the land dry and less suitable for intensive rice cultivation.In contrast to the southern coast,the water off the calm north shore is shallow for up to a kilometer out to sea.The palm savannahs,tall grasses,and clusters of pilang ( Acacia leucophloea )tree give the Prapat Agung peninsula of the far northwest a distinctly African apperance.

The length of Bali's costline is 460km.Only about eight percen of the beaches consist of white sand,and the are founf mostly in the famed resorts of Sanir,Kuta,Uluwatu,Nusa Dua and Tanjung.the remainder of the beaches,such as a magnificent 30-kilometer-long stretch in Tabanan Regency,feature gray-black volcani couscous-like sand and are almost desrt-like being on another planet.The coast from snur extending down through Benoa Bay is long and sheltered,lined with 1,400 hectares of natural mangrove stands suffered from the effects of salt making,shrimp ponds,coral collecting,and the charcoal industry,a major reforestation project has been underway along this coastal strip since 1992.

Bali's six volcanic pekas,all exceeding 2,000 meters,trap rain clouds that swell the rivers rushing down from the highlands through deep,narrow gorges overgrown with lush tropical vegetation,Running parallel to each other north to south,irrigating the rice fields on the lower slopes,are bali's two major rivers,the Pakerisan("Kris RIver')and the Petanu ("Cursed River"),their history steeped in myths and legends.Both are regarded as holy;it is on their banks where most of the archaeological remains of Bali's ancient kingdoms have been found.

The astonishingly rich coastal plains of the south have given rise to Bali's unique civilization.Until recent times,the entire southern drainage of the island has been politically divided into eight small but powerful kingdoms.These partitioned,pie-shaped realms of south Bali were always aligned north to south along the ravines rather than east to west and travel on Bali has always been hampered by deeply cut longitudinal ravines.Even today,because of the island's difficult topography,most higways carry traffic north and south.

Bali lies over two major tectonic plate-the rigid Sunda plate to the north and the Indo-Australia plate to the south-the grind over one another,producing frequent geologic insability.One of the worst natural catastrophes of this century wa the 1917 eartquake in which a series of tremors devastated the eastern and southerb regions of the islad,followed by a major eruption of Gunung Batur when tremors came to an end,1,500 people had died and 2,431 temples and 64,000 home had been destroyed.Another extermely destructive eruption of 1,717 meter-high Batur occured.In August 1994,after lying dormant fro 20 years,the volcano began to erupt again,venting more tah 600 times a day and shooting hot ashes and smoke into the sky for month. Bali has highest and most revered mountain,GUnung Agung,also erupted in 1963,destrying vilages and covering fertile rice fields with rivers of lave and showers of ash and debris.