Why go
Postojna and Škocjan show the effects of water moving through limestone, while Triglav National Park belongs to the Alpine landscape. These are different expressions of the same country’s varied geology. Regional labels describe overlapping landforms and climates, so the transition from mountains to Mediterranean country is not a clean dividing line.
The full story
Slovenia stands at the meeting of the Alps in the north, the Dinaric mountains to the south and the Pannonian Basin to the east. The small Adriatic Plate is squeezed between the Eurasian and African plates, making the country a seismically active area. Much of its ground consists of carbonate rock, within which extensive subterranean systems have formed. Geographers have described these landscapes in several ways. One approach distinguishes the Alps, subalpine country, the Slovene Littoral, inland Dinaric plateaus and sub-Pannonian Slovenia. Another groups the country into Alpine, Mediterranean, Dinaric and Pannonian landscapes. Neither is a set of rigid compartments: relief and climate interact, and neighboring landscapes interweave. Protected areas also take different forms, including national, regional and nature parks. Triglav National Park gives the Alpine part of this varied geography a particularly clear identity.