Balbieriškis Outcrop

Look around here for ten minutes and the impression will not fade for ten years. Standing on the bluff, you see one of the most beautiful landscapes in Lithuania. The renowned geographer Česlovas Kudaba wrote of this place: "If you have not seen the Nemunas from the slopes of Balbieriškis, you cannot yet boast of having seen the father of our rivers." The late-18th-century traveller Friedrich Schulz and 21st-century travel bloggers have written about it just as vividly. From the viewing platform you see a bend of the Nemunas, banks covered in pine forest, and in the distance the Bukta forest stretching to the horizon. It is one of the most popular spots for photo shoots. The site matters to geologists no less than to nature lovers. The outcrop, stretching as much as 1,700 m, reveals the legacy of the Ice Age. With the naked eye you can clearly see the thickness of glacial deposits and layers of banded clay resembling a layered cake, called varves. Counting them has shown that during the glacial period the cold-water Balbieriškis–Simnas glacial lake lay here for about 200 years. The outcrop is best seen from the opposite bank of the Nemunas or from a boat on the river. The site belongs to the Nemunas Loops Regional Park and, for its geological value, was declared a natural monument of national importance in 1974.