The Western Romanian Carpathians (or the Apuseni Mountains) got their name based on their geographical position, west, to the Transylvanian Plateau.
The Apuseni are wild, beautiful and green. These are no comparison to the Fagaras rocky Mountains in the South.
The numerous rivers have cut spectacular canyons and created the most fascinating caves. The Apuseni Natural Park houses approximately 1500 caves with Scarisoara, the Bear’s Cave and among the most known.
The unique flora of the these mountains hosting some extremely rare plants, was able to develop here also due to several micro climates and the complex geographic structure of the mountains.
Scarisoara Ice Cave in the Apuseni Mountains houses the largest underground glacier in Europe and second largest in the world. It is considered a show cave and one of the natural wonders of Romania. Ice samples extracted from the Scarisoara Cave Glacier offer evidence of how winter climate in Europe has fluctuated over the last 10,000 years.
