A Thousand Hills in Bohol in the Philippines
Mounted naturally in the fields of Bohol Philippines is the well known a thousand hills in the Philippines that is the Chocolate Hills of Bohol. Yes, so far as the latest survey, the hills are estimated 1,776 in numbers. That is really a thousand hills on a 50 square kilometer terrain.
The Chocolate Hills is actually the third National Geological Monument of the Philippines and is being proposed to include at UNESCO World Heritage list. This is so because the Chocolate Hills is one of a kind in the world and it is naturally formed not like the Pyramids of Egypt which are man-made only. For every one who views it personally were really amazed that these hills were not man-made or were done by nature.
The hills are cone-shaped like hills with mixture of brown (the chocolate-color ground) and green (The grassy parts) color. However, its chocolate-colored ground stand outs more that it grassy part, thus they are called Chocolate hills, that is because of their chocolate color. Some who personally visits it says that their shapes are almost relatively symmetrical, thus every tourist has the reason to exclaim “wow” about their beauty. The Chocolate hills are a rolling haycock hills and said to be compose of limestones within them. Their grassy parts have a grass species like Imperata cylindrical, Saccharum spontaneum, and some ferns.
The Chocolate Hills are said to be like the Karst Hills similar to Slovenia and Croatia, however, the Chocolate Hills does not have caves. Their existence is being compared or studied in accordance to Karst theory. You can google about the Karst theory if you wanted to know about this theory. However, there are also legends about their formations, that is it is said that a two feuding giants throw mud, hurled rocks, sand, etc to one another until they finally exhausted and end up their feuding issue.
The flat land in between the hills is being used for vegetation purpose where rice and other crops were planted on it. For these hills were distributed throughout the towns of Carmen, Batuan, and Sagbayan in Bohol Philppines. However, it is mostly concentrated at the town of Carmen. Actually, there is a government owned resort at Carmen Bohol where you can view the Chocolate Hills that is the “Chocolate Hills Complex” where you can view the hills. But, you can also view them at Sagbayan Town at “Sagbayan Peak”,a resort at Sagbayan Bohol.
The “Chocolate Hill Complex” is originally a two hills which were developed into a resort and viewing facility. The higher hill has viewing deck which you can view the Chocolate hills in a 360 degree view. Similarly, the “Sagbayan Peak of the town of Sagbayan also offers similar viewing angle with the exception only that at Sagbyan Peak you can also view the sea coast of Cebu city Philippines.
The Chocolate Hills is already a famous tourist destination long before the popularity of white sand beaches in the Philippines come into consciousness of the world about Philippine Tourism. It is already then the flagship Philippine tourist destination.
