One of the most impressive places in the Carpathian Mountains is the karst "bridge" in the Uholka-Shyroky Luh mountain range (the territory of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve), near the village of Mala Uholka.
It is, in fact, a remnant of an ancient rock wall. The water running down the mountainside for hundreds of thousands of years slowly dissolved the soft limestones and formed shakeholes. Rain and melt water flowed through those shakeholes to the river expanding them and turning them into caves. Enlargement of the rock cavities led to the collapse of the rock leaving only an arch – the present karst "bridge".
It consists of two perpendicular arches: a large and a small one. Due to this arrangement, the whole structure looks like it stands on three "legs". And in the center of the arch, there is a kind of "chimney" – a vertical shaft, through which water once flowed into the cave. Natural elements – wind and water – polished the surface of the karst "bridge", smoothing out all traces of the ancient collapse.
The "bridge" is formed by pelitomorphic limestones, which are characterized by a very dense and fine crystalline structure. These limestones were formed in the Jurassic period, more than 150 million years ago, when the Tethys ocean was located in the territory of the present Carpathians. It is interesting that limestones are not widespread in the Ukrainian Carpathians – most of the mountain ranges are composed of flysch (sandstone). Limestones and marbles, for the most part, form the Maramures and Chyvchyn Mountains in the south and the Volcanic Carpathians in the west.
The Chur Rock, where the karst bridge is located, offers a magnificent view of the valley of the Mala Uholka River and the village of the same name. The upper reaches of this river are a unique natural ecosystem – perhaps the last center of beech forests in Europe.
Uzhgorod.net.ua with reference to Unknown Ukraine
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