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| Norge - Noreg - Norway |
| Lysefjord and the pulpit rock |
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Lysefjord is a fjord located in
south-western Norway. The name means light fjord, and is said to
be derived from the lightly coloured granite rocks along its
sides. The fjord was carved by the action of glaciers in the ice
ages and was flooded by the sea when the later glaciers
retreated. End to end, it measures 42 km with rocky walls falling
nearly vertically over 1000 m into the water. Because of the
inhospitable terrain, the fjord is only lightly populated and
only has two villages on its length - Forsand and Lysebotn,
located at opposite ends of the fjord. The few people who live or
lived along the fjord are only able to leave their homes by boat,
as the slopes are too steep for roads. Lysebotn, at the far
eastern end, is largely populated by workers at the nearby
hydroelectric plants at Lyse and Tjodan, both built inside the
mountains. At the Lyse plant, the water falls 620 m to the
turbines, producing up to 210,000 kW of electricity; at Tjodan,
the water falls 896 m to yield an output of 110,000 kW. The two
power plants provide electricity for more than 100,000 people.
A spectacular road which rises almost 900
m through a series of 27 hairpin bends links Lysebotn with the
outside world. Lysefjord is an extremely popular tourist
attraction and day trip from nearby Stavanger, from where cruise
ships travel the full distance of the fjord. As well as the
extraordinary scenery of the fjord itself, two points along its
length are popular side trips. The rock of Preikestolen, located
above a vertical drop of 600 meters, can be seen from the fjord,
but is more impressive from above. At the end of the fjord lies
the Kjerag mountain, a popular hiking destination with even more
spectacular drops. Not only is the fjord long and narrow, it is
in places as deep as the mountains are high. Only 13 m deep where
it meets the sea near Stavanger, the Lysefjord drops to a depth
of over 400 m below the Preikestolen. French writer Victor Hugo
poetized in Toilers of the Sea admiring the scenery after a visit
in 1866 that the Lysefjord was the most terrifying of the ocean
reefs. BASE Jumpers are legally allowed to jump here.
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