The Petrified Forest of Shilin: Labyrinths of Stone and Paradise
This army of monoliths in southern China forms a labyrinthine network of micro-forests.
Forests tend to be enchanting spaces, scenes that house a re-encounter between human culture and natural divinity: Secret gardens where the essence of sacred nature is consummated.
In southeastern China, in Yunnan province, there is a peculiar forest in which, paradoxically, the protagonists are not trees but innumerable monoliths scattered across 30,000 hectares and which give life to an army of static guards.
The basalt formations of Shilin forest are the result of erosion and seismic activity, among other factors that are a manifestation of the perfection of chance. The forest of stone has the wisdom of 270 million years tattooed across it. The space projects a kind of neuronal network within which there are hundreds of micro-forests that open the way to dozens of labyrinths.
But the paradisiacal essence of Shilin stone forest does not end there. Its interior contains a multitude of caves, ponds and waterfalls. And a lake with an island in the middle forms the improbable and umbilical center of this unique place.
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