Facts About The Great Dune of Pyla - strangefacts

• Largest sand dune in Europe is the great dune of Pyla

• Size of sand dune of Pyla is about 60,000,000 cubic meters

• It measures 1,640 feet (500 m) wide and 1.86 miles (3 km long), with the height ranging from 328 to 383.8 feet (100 to 117 m) above sea level

• The Dune of Pilat is also known as the Great Dune of Pyla

• It is located in the La Teste-de-Buch of the Arcachon Bay area

• At 60Km from Bordeaux, in the South of the Arcachon Bay, it is possible to visit the highest dune in Europe, the Great Dune of Pyla (or Pilat)

• This hight of dune of Pyla reaches upto a height of 107m

• At this summit, the view is spectacular with the ocean coast, the inlet of the Bay, the large pine forest and, when the sky is very clear, the Pyrenees Range

• This Great Dune is constituted of fine sand which the siliceous grains have about the same size

• Since about ten years, this area is also became a point of start to the lover of delta planes

• The Great Dune of Pyla is located on the “La Teste de Buch” district (Gironde) and it is a national listed landscape

• Since Europe has no deserts, you’d think the title of “Europe’s largest sand dune” would go to something that wasn’t particularly impressive. But you’d be wrong
• The Great Dune of Pyla is 3km long, 500m wide and 100m high, and for reasons I will probably never understand, it seems to have formed in a forest

• The dune is very steep on the side facing the forest and is famous for being a paragliding site

• At the top it also provides spectacular views out to sea and over the forest (since the dune is far higher than any of the trees surrounding it)

• This unique place is great traveling opportunity for those who would like to experience how it is like to be in desert and this little version of desert is less than a hour of ride away from Bordeaux

• A number of such smaller sand dunes can be found at the soul of sandy moor of Gascony

• This dune is huge enough to be visible from the space. From above, it looks like huge white rectangle